Advancing Storage and Information Technology
 
 

Online SNIA Dictionary

K28.5 [Permalink]

[Fibre Channel] 

A special 10-bit character used to indicate the beginning of a Fibre Channel command.

kb / kbit [Permalink]

[General] 

Abbreviations for kilobit.

kB / kbyte [Permalink]

[General] 

Abbreviations for kilobyte.

key [Permalink]

[Storage System] 

[Storage] The address of an object in a key-value storage system.

[Data Security] A sequence of bits used for cryptographic operations and/or for producing other keys.

The same plaintext encrypted with different keys yields different ciphertexts, each of which requires a different key for decryption. In a symmetric cryptosystem the encryption and decryption keys are the same. In an asymmetric cryptosystem the encryption and decryption keys are different.

key backup [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A process used in a cryptographic system that provides key deposit and recovery.

Key backup is sometimes used as a replacement term for key escrow, which has become encumbered with additional meanings.

key escrow [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A process in which the storage of a cryptographic key is entrusted to a third party escrow agent who will disclose it only to the owner or another authorized user.

key exchange [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A cryptographic protocol and procedure in which two communicating entities determine a shared key in a fashion such that a third party that reads all of their communication cannot effectively determine the value of the key.

A common approach to key exchange requires such a third party to compute a discrete logarithm over a large field in order to determine the key value, and relies for its security on the computational intractability of the discrete logarithm problem.

key management [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

The supervision and control of the process, usually in accordance with a security policy, by which cryptographic keys are generated, stored, protected, distributed, applied, archived, revoked and destroyed.

Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

An OASIS standard that establishes a single, comprehensive protocol for communication between key management servers and cryptographic clients.

key pair [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A public key and its corresponding private key as used in public key cryptography.

See asymmetric cryptosystem.

key recovery [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A system characterized by the presence of some mechanism for obtaining exceptional access to a cryptographic key in case of loss by error, disaster, or malicious intent.

See also key escrow.

key wrapping [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A method of encrypting keys (along with associated integrity information) that provides both confidentiality and integrity protection using a symmetric key. [NIST SP 800-57 Part 1]

key-value storage [Permalink]

[Storage System] 

A type of object storage interface where a key is used to address the associated object.

keying material [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

A key or authentication information in physical or magnetic form.

KiB / KiByte [Permalink]

[General] 

Shorthand for kibibyte.

Kibibit [Permalink]

[General] 

Shorthand for 1,024 (210) bits.

Binary notation is most commonly used in computer system and software literature.

See also kilobit.

Kibibyte [Permalink]

[General] 

Shorthand for 1,024 (210) bytes.

Binary notation is most commonly used in computer system and software literature.

See also kilobyte.

Kibit [Permalink]

[General] 

Shorthand for kibibit.

Kilobit [Permalink]

[General] 

1,000 (103) bits.

The base 10 convention is commonly found in I/O-related and scientific literature.

See also kibibit.

Kilobyte [Permalink]

[General] 

1,000 (103) bytes.

The base 10 convention is commonly found in I/O-related and scientific literature.

See also kibibyte.

KMIP [Permalink]

[Data Security] 

Acronym for Key Management Interoperability Protocol.