Glossary Terms Starting with A

Asset-Referenced Token (ART)

An Asset-Referenced Token, or ART, is a regulatory category under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework for a token intended to…

Associated Token Account

An associated token account is Solana's standard, deterministically derived account for holding one specific token mint on behalf of one wallet. Because…

Asymmetric Cryptography

Asymmetric Cryptography is cryptography that uses a mathematically related public and private key pair for digital signatures, key establishment, encryption, or identity…

Asynchronous Consensus

Asynchronous consensus lets distributed nodes reach agreement without assuming a fixed maximum delay for messages or processing between honest participants. This model…

At-Least-Once Delivery

At-Least-Once Delivery is a message-delivery guarantee in which the system keeps retrying until delivery is acknowledged, so a message should arrive but…

At-Most-Once Delivery

At-Most-Once Delivery is a delivery approach in which each message is attempted no more than once, preventing redelivery but allowing messages to…

Atomic Transaction

An atomic transaction is a transaction or grouped operation that either completes all required state changes successfully or applies none of them.…

Attack

An attack is a deliberate attempt to compromise confidentiality, integrity, availability, authorization, assets, or trust within a system. Defenses against Attack combine…

Attack Path

An attack path is the sequence of weaknesses, permissions, systems, and actions an attacker can combine to reach a target outcome. Attack…

Attack Surface

The attack surface is the complete set of reachable interfaces, identities, components, data, and processes that an attacker could target. For Attack…

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

Attack Surface Management (ASM) is the continuous discovery, classification, prioritization, and reduction of assets, exposures, identities, dependencies, and pathways that an attacker…

Attack Tree

An attack tree is a hierarchical model that breaks an adversary's objective into alternative or combined steps required for success. Attack Tree…

Attack Vector

An attack vector is the method or route an attacker uses to reach a target and attempt exploitation or unauthorized influence. Attack…

Attestation of Compliance (AOC)

An Attestation of Compliance is an official PCI form declaring the results of a merchant's or service provider's PCI DSS assessment. An…

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) is a security mechanism or control discipline that dynamically evaluates policies using attributes of the requester, resource, action,…

Audit Evidence

Audit evidence is the reliable information an auditor uses to evaluate whether controls, records, assertions, or compliance requirements are satisfied. Reliable results…

Audit Finding

An audit finding is a documented condition where evidence shows a control, process, or requirement differs from the expected criteria. Audit Finding…

Audit Log

Audit Log is a chronological record of security-relevant and operational events that shows who or what performed an action, when it occurred,…

Audit Logging

Audit logging is the controlled process of generating, transmitting, protecting, retaining, reviewing, and disposing of records about significant system activity. Reliable results…

Audit Program

An Audit Program is a documented set of audit objectives, scope, procedures, evidence requirements, responsibilities, timing, sampling approaches, and reporting steps for…

Audit Sampling

Audit Sampling is the application of audit procedures to fewer than all items in a population so the auditor can form a…

Audit Trail

An audit trail is the linked history of records showing how a transaction, decision, balance, or configuration changed from origin to outcome.…

Auditability

Auditability is the quality of a process or system that allows an independent reviewer to reconstruct events, verify controls, trace decisions, and…

Aura Consensus

Aura is a deterministic block-authoring protocol in which an approved, rotating set of authorities takes turns producing blocks in assigned slots. Aura…