N

Nano: A command-line file editor that is available by default in many Linux distributions

NAT: Network Address Translation. It is used to share one or a small number of publicly routable IP addresses among a larger number of hosts. The hosts are assigned private IP addresses, which are then “translated” into one of the publicly routed IP addresses. Typically home or small business networks use NAT to share a single DLS or Cable modem IP address. However, in some cases, NAT is used for servers as an additional layer of protection.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): National Institute of Standards and Technology, a unit of the US Commerce Department. Formerly known as the National Bureau of Standards, NIST promotes and maintains measurement standards. It also has active programs for encouraging and assisting industry and science to develop and use these standards.

Natural Disaster: Any “act of God” (e.g., fire, flood, earthquake, lightning, or wind) that disables a system component.

Netmask:  32-bit number indicating the range of IP addresses residing on a single IP network/subnet/supernet. This specification displays network masks as hexadecimal numbers. For example, the network mask for a class C IP network is displayed as 0xffffff00. Such a mask is often displayed elsewhere in the literature as 255.255.255.0.

Network Address Translation (NAT): See NAT

Network Mapping: To compile an electronic inventory of the systems and the services on your network.

Non-Printable Character: A character that doesn’t have a corresponding character letter to its corresponding ASCII code. Examples would be the Linefeed, which is ASCII character code 10 decimals, the Carriage Return, which is 13 decimals, or the bell sound, which is decimal 7. On a PC, you can often add non-printable characters by holding down the Alt key and typing in the decimal value (i.e., Alt-007 gets you a bell). There are other character encoding schemes, but ASCII is the most prevalent.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF): A voluntary framework that consists of standards, guidelines, and best practices to manage cybersecurity risk

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (S.P.) 800-53: A unified framework for protecting the security of information systems within the U.S. Federal Government

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (S.P.)

Network Data: The data that are transmitted between devices on a network

Network Interface Card (NIC): Hardware that connects computers to a network

Network Log Analysis: The process of examining network logs to identify events of interest

Network Protocol Analyzer (Packet Sniffer): A tool designed to capture and analyze

Network protocols: A set of rules used by two or more devices on a network to describe the order of delivery of data and the structure of data

Network Security: The practice of keeping an organization’s network infrastructure

Network Segmentation: A security technique that divides the network into segments

Network Traffic: The amount of data that moves across a network

Network: A group of connected devices

Network-based Intrusion Detection System (NIDS): An application that collects and

Non-repudiation: The concept that the authenticity of information can’t be denied

Notebook: An online interface for writing, storing, and running code

Numeric Data: Data consisting of numbers.