SNIA Online Dictionary

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K28.5	[Fibre Channel] A 10-bit special character used in 8B/10B encoding to indicate the beginning of an Ordered Set.
kb / kbit	[General] Abbreviations for kilobit.
kB / kbyte	[General] Abbreviations for kilobyte.
key	[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	[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	[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	[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	[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	[Data Security] An OASIS standard that establishes a single, comprehensive protocol for communication between key management servers and cryptographic clients.
key pair	[Data Security] A public key and its corresponding private key as used in public key cryptography. See asymmetric cryptosystem.
key recovery	[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	[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	[Storage System] A type of object storage interface where a key is used to address the associated object.
keying material	[Data Security] A key or authentication information in physical or magnetic form.
KiB / KiByte	[General] Shorthand for kibibyte.
Kibibit	[General] Shorthand for 1,024 (210) bits. Binary notation is most commonly used in computer system and software literature. See also kilobit.
Kibibyte	[General] Shorthand for 1,024 (210) bytes. Binary notation is most commonly used in computer system and software literature. See also kilobyte.
Kibit	[General] Shorthand for kibibit.
Kilobit	[General] 1,000 (103) bits. The base 10 convention is commonly found in I/O-related and scientific literature. See also kibibit.
Kilobyte	[General] 1,000 (103) bytes. The base 10 convention is commonly found in I/O-related and scientific literature. See also kibibyte.
KMIP	[Data Security] Acronym for Key Management Interoperability Protocol.