Certified CyberDefender Level 2 (CCDL2) preparation key terms
Certified CyberDefender Level 2 (CCDL2) preparation · Get comfortable with the vocabulary.
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Related: Log Management, Incident Response
A system that collects, aggregates, and analyzes log data from various sources to detect security incidents and support compliance reporting.
- Incident Response
- Related: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Business Continuity Plan
A structured approach to handling security incidents, typically including preparation, detection, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned.
- Evidence provenance
The recorded source, collection method, identity and handling history supporting interpretation of an artifact, distinct from an automatic guarantee of admissibility or truth.
- Integrity hash comparison
A comparison supporting equality of captured byte sequences under a method, not proof of the identity or intent of a human actor.
- Timeline normalization
Explicit treatment of time zones, offsets and timestamp meanings before correlating events across sources, rather than sorting unlike clocks as if identical.
- Capture coverage
The monitored point, filters, length, losses, time and encryption conditions that limit what a packet or other collection can establish.
- STIX
A structured language for representing relevant threat and observable information, distinct from the transport/exchange mechanism or a conclusive attribution guarantee.
- TAXII
A supported threat-intelligence exchange model whose access, version and server/client behavior require review separately from the represented STIX content.
- Hunt hypothesis
A testable proposition about activity and expected observations that guides analysis, with data coverage and alternatives explicitly considered.
- Containment impact
The operational and evidentiary consequences of a proposed restriction or isolation, assessed alongside incident harm and responsible authorization.
- Evidence preservation
Actions intended to retain relevant incident data and context under the actual authorized priorities, not a guarantee that every changing system state remains untouched.
- Chain of custody
A documented record of possession, transfer and handling linked to the identified evidence, supporting accountability without independently proving every investigative conclusion.
- Acquisition verification
Comparison of appropriate records and digest evidence for the acquired data, interpreted under the actual method rather than assuming live systems never change.
- Logical acquisition
Collection of selected logical objects or data through their available interfaces, which may differ in coverage from a physical device image.
- Physical acquisition
Acquisition addressing the relevant device or storage representation at a lower level, whose actual coverage and limitations must be documented.
- Unallocated space
Storage not currently allocated to an active object under the relevant filesystem view, potentially containing residual data but not guaranteeing complete recovery.
- File carving
Recovery attempts based on content patterns or structure rather than intact filesystem directory information, subject to fragmentation and false-positive limitations.
- Filesystem timestamp
A recorded time associated with a defined filesystem event or field, requiring context rather than automatically proving a human action.
- Volatile memory
Runtime data that can change or disappear with execution and power state, requiring an acquisition decision appropriate to incident priorities and authority.
- Clock skew
A difference between a recorded source clock and the relevant reference, which can distort event order if not assessed consistently.
- Network reassembly
Reconstruction of relevant higher-level communication from captured packets, limited by collection coverage, loss, encryption and protocol behavior.
- Alternative hypothesis
A competing explanation evaluated against available evidence, helping avoid treating a single anomalous artifact as proof of one cause.
- Detection coverage
The relevant events, assets and behavior a detection can observe under its actual data and rule configuration, distinct from guaranteed attack prevention.