Browse Definitions by Alphabet

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) - Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is a server role in Active Directory that allows admins to manage and store information about resources from a network, as well as application data, in a distributed database.
m-commerce (mobile commerce) - M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets.
M.2 SSD - An M.2 SSD is a small form factor solid-state drive (SSD) that internally mounted storage expansion cards use.
MacBook Air - MacBook Air is a thin, lightweight laptop from Apple.
machine authentication - Machine authentication is the authorization of an automated human-to-machine or machine-to-machine (M2M) communication through verification of a digital certificate or digital credentials.
machine learning engineer (ML engineer) - A machine learning engineer (ML engineer) is a person in IT who focuses on researching, building and designing self-running artificial intelligence (AI) systems to automate predictive models.
machine teaching - Machine teaching is the practice of infusing context -- and often business consequences -- into the selection of training data used in machine learning (ML) so that the most relevant outputs are produced by the ML algorithms.
machine-to-machine (M2M) - Machine-to-machine, or M2M, is a broad label that can be used to describe any technology that enables networked devices to exchange information and perform actions without the manual assistance of humans.
Macintosh - The Macintosh, now called the Mac, was the first widely sold personal computer (PC) with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse.
macOS - MacOS is the computer operating system for Apple desktops and laptops.
MACRA (Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) - MACRA (Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) is U.
macro virus - A macro virus is a computer virus written in the same macro language used to create software programs such as Microsoft Excel or Word.
macrotrend - A macrotrend is a pervasive and persistent shift in the direction of some phenomenon on a global level.
magnetic field strength - Magnetic field strength is a measure of the intensity of a magnetic field in a given area of that field.
magnetic storage - Magnetic storage has been around in many forms since 1888 by Oberlan Smith, who publicized his audio recording on a wire in Electrical World.
magnetic tape storage - Magnetic tape is one of the oldest technologies for electronic data storage.
mail bomb - A mail bomb is a form of a denial-of-service (DoS) attack designed to overwhelm an inbox or inhibit a server by sending a massive number of emails to a specific person or system.
mail server (mail transfer/transport agent, MTA, mail router, internet mailer) - A mail server -- also known as a mail transfer agent, or MTA; mail transport agent; mail router; or internet mailer -- is an application that receives incoming email from local users and remote senders and forwards outgoing messages for delivery.
mainframe (big iron) - A mainframe (also known as 'big iron') is a high-performance computer used for large-scale computing purposes that require greater availability and security than a smaller-scale machine can offer.
Malware quiz: Test your knowledge of types and terms - Malware trends are constantly evolving, but older techniques are still often used in cyber attacks today.
man in the browser (MitB) - Man in the browser (MitB) is a security attack where the perpetrator installs a Trojan horse on the victim's computer that is capable of modifying that user's web transactions.
man-in-the-middle attack (MitM) - A man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack is a type of cyber attack in which the attacker secretly intercepts and relays messages between two parties who believe they are communicating directly with each other.
managed hosting - Managed hosting is an IT provisioning model in which a service provider leases dedicated servers and associated hardware to a single customer and manages those systems on the customer's behalf.
managed IT service - A managed IT service is an information technology (IT) task provided by a third-party contractor and delivered to a customer.
managed security service provider (MSSP) - A managed security service provider (MSSP) is an IT service provider that sells security services to businesses.
managed service provider (MSP) - A managed service provider (MSP) is a third-party company that remotely manages a customer's information technology (IT) infrastructure and end-user systems.
manager self-service - Manager self-service is self-service platform that enables managers to get immediate access to employee information and initiate employment-related actions.
managerial grid model (The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid model) - The managerial grid model was developed by Robert R.
Manchester encoding - In data transmission, Manchester encoding is a form of digital encoding in which a data bit's state -- 0 or 1 -- is represented by the transition from one voltage level to another.
mandatory access control (MAC) - Mandatory access control (MAC) is a security strategy that restricts the ability individual resource owners have to grant or deny access to resource objects in a file system.
Mandela Effect - The Mandela Effect is an observed phenomenon in which a large segment of the population misremembers a significant event or shares a memory of an event that did not actually occur.
manufacturing execution system (MES) - A manufacturing execution system (MES) is an information system that connects, monitors and controls complex manufacturing systems and data flows on the factory floor.
marcom (or marcomm) - Marcom (sometimes spelled 'marcomm') is an abbreviation for 'marketing communications.
market basket analysis - Market basket analysis is a data mining technique used by retailers to increase sales by better understanding customer purchasing patterns.
market concentration - Market concentration is the distribution of a given market among the participating companies.
market development funds (MDF) - Market development funds (MDF) are a resource that a vendor grants to its indirect sales channel partners to help the channel with sales and marketing programs.
marketecture (marchitecture) - Marketecture (also known as marchitecture) refers to non-technical descriptions of a company's products or services that let various stakeholders understand the product's core functionality and how it works with other products as part of a broader ecosystem.
marketing automation - Marketing automation is a type of software that allows companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media and text messages to generate sales leads.
marketing campaign management - Marketing campaign management is the planning, executing, tracking and analysis of direct marketing campaigns.
marketing stack - A marketing stack, also called a marketing technology stack, is a collection of technologies used by marketers to perform, analyze and improve their services.
marketing-qualified lead (MQL) - A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is a website visitor whose engagement levels indicate they are likely to become a customer.
Marketo - Marketo is a comprehensive marketing software-as-a-service platform designed to automate and streamline marketing tasks across multiple digital channels.
Markov model - A Markov model is a stochastic method for randomly changing systems that possess the Markov property.
Martian address (Martian packet) - A Martian address is a source or destination IP address that apparently does not exist on Planet Earth and is, thus, invalid and/or non-routable.
mass (m) - Mass (symbolized m) is a dimensionless quantity representing the amount of matter in a particle or object.
massive open online course (MOOC) - A massive open online course (MOOC) is a typically free web-based distance learning program that's designed for large numbers of geographically dispersed students.
Master Boot Record (MBR) - The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the information in the first sector of a hard disk or a removable drive.
material requirements planning (MRP) - Material requirements planning (MRP) is a system for calculating the materials and components needed to manufacture a product.
maturity grid (maturity model) - A maturity model is a matrix for evaluating an organization's level of progress towards a goal.
Maven - Maven is a project management build tool used mostly in Java development.
maximizer - A maximizer is an individual who consistently seeks the optimal outcome for any endeavor.
maximum transmission unit (MTU) - The maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the largest size frame or packet -- in bytes or octets (eight-bit bytes) -- that can be transmitted across a data link.
MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) - MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) was a certification program offered by Microsoft and intended for people seeking entry-level jobs in an IT environment.
MD5 - The MD5 (message-digest algorithm) hashing algorithm is a one-way cryptographic function that accepts a message of any length as input and returns as output a fixed-length digest value to be used for authenticating the original message.
MDI/MDIX (medium-dependent interface/MDI crossover) - MDI/MDIX is a type of Ethernet port connection that uses twisted-pair cabling to link two networked devices.
mean time to detect (MTTD) - Mean time to detect (MTTD) is a measure of how long a problem exists in an IT deployment before the appropriate parties become aware of it.
mean time to innocence - Mean time to innocence is the average elapsed time between when a system problem is detected and any given team's ability to say the team or part of its system is not the root cause of the problem.
Meaningful Use - In the context of health IT, meaningful use is a term used to define minimum U.
meaningful use stage 3 - Meaningful use stage 3 is the third phase of the federal incentive program that details requirements for the use of electronic health record systems by hospitals and eligible healthcare professionals.
mebibyte (MiB) - A mebibyte (MiB) is a unit of measurement used in computer data storage.
mechanical refrigeration - Mechanical refrigeration, often referred to simply as refrigeration or air conditioning, is a process by which heat is removed from a location using a human-made heat exchange system.
medical imaging (radiology) - Medical imaging, also known as radiology, is the field of medicine in which medical professionals recreate various images of parts of the body for diagnostic or treatment purposes.
medical scribe - A medical scribe is a professional who specializes in documenting patient encounters in real time under the direction of a physician.
medical transcription (MT) - Medical transcription (MT) is the manual processing of voice reports dictated by physicians and other healthcare professionals into text format.
Meditech (Medical Information Technology Inc.) - Meditech (Medical Information Technology Inc.
meet-in-the-middle attack - Meet-in-the-middle is a known plaintext attack that can greatly reduce the number of brute-force permutations required to decrypt text that has been encrypted by more than one key.
megabits per second (Mbps) - Megabits per second (Mbps) are units of measurement for network bandwidth and throughput.
megabyte (MB) - A megabyte is a unit of data capacity that is equal to 1,000,000 bytes in decimal notation (base 10) or 1,048,576 bytes in binary notation (base 2).
megabytes per second (MBps) - Megabytes per second (MBps) is a unit of measurement for data transfer speed to and from a computer storage device.
megahertz (MHz) - Megahertz (MHz) is a unit multiplier that represents one million hertz (106 Hz).
Melissa virus - Melissa was a type of email virus that initially become an issue in early 1999.
memorandum of understanding (MOU) - A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a formal agreement that outlines plans for a common line of action between two or more parties.
memory dump - A memory dump is the process of taking all information content in RAM and writing it to a storage drive as a memory dump file (*.
memory management unit (MMU) - A memory management unit (MMU) is a computer hardware component that handles all memory and caching operations associated with the processor.
memory paging - Memory paging is a memory management technique used to control sharing of memory resources belonging to a computer or virtual machine (VM).
memristor - A memristor is an electrical component that limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in a circuit and remembers the amount of charge that has previously flowed through it.
MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) - A MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) is a miniature machine that has both mechanical and electronic components.
menu - A menu is a set of options presented to the user of a computer application to help them find information or execute a function.
mesh network topology (mesh network) - A mesh network is a network in which devices -- or nodes -- are linked together, branching off other devices or nodes.
message authentication code (MAC) - A message authentication code (MAC) is a cryptographic checksum applied to a message in network communication to guarantee its integrity and authenticity.
message passing interface (MPI) - The message passing interface (MPI) is a standardized means of exchanging messages between multiple computers running a parallel program across distributed memory.
messaging security - Messaging security is a subcategory of unified threat management, or UTM, focused on securing and protecting an organization's communication infrastructure.
meta description tag - A meta description tag is a snippet of HTML code in a web page header that summarizes the content that's on the web page.
metadata - Often referred to as data that describes other data, metadata is structured reference data that helps to sort and identify attributes of the information it describes.
metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) - The metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, pronounced MAWS-feht) is the most common type of field-effect transistor (FET).
metamorphic and polymorphic malware - Metamorphic and polymorphic malware are two types of malicious software (malware) that can change their code as they propagate through a system.
meter per second (m/s) - The meter per second (m/s) is the standard unit of speed and velocity in the International System of Units.
method (in object-oriented programming) - In object-oriented programming (OOP), a method is a programmed procedure that is defined as part of a class and is available to any object instantiated from that class.
metropolitan area network (MAN) - A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a computer network that is larger than a single building local area network (LAN) but is located in a single geographic area that is smaller than a wide area network (WAN).
mHealth (mobile health) - mHealth (mobile health) is a general term for the use of mobile phones and other wireless technology in medical care.
MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) - MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) is a technology invented in the 1950s that's used to verify the legitimacy or originality of checks and other paper documents.
micro app - A micro app is a small, mobile application that is designed to perform one, simple task.
micro USB - A micro USB is a miniaturized version of the Universal Serial Bus interface developed for connecting compact and mobile devices, such as smartphones, MP3 players, Global Positioning System devices, printers and digital cameras.
micro-location - Micro-location is the process of pinpointing a person's placement to within a few inches or feet using various technologies.
microblogging - Microblogging is a short blog post designed for quick and typically direct audience interactions.
microchip - A microchip -- also called a chip, computer chip or integrated circuit (IC) -- is a unit of integrated circuitry that is manufactured at a microscopic scale using a semiconductor material, such as silicon or, to a lesser degree, germanium.
microfarad - The microfarad -- symbolized as µF using the Greek symbol mu -- is a unit of capacitance, equivalent to 0.
microlearning (microtraining) - Microlearning is an educational strategy that focuses on learning new information in small units.
microphone - A microphone is a device that translates sound vibrations in the air into electronic signals and scribes them to a recording medium or over a loudspeaker.
microsegmentation - Microsegmentation is a security technique that splits a network into definable zones and uses policies to dictate how data and applications within those zones can be accessed and controlled.