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Material weakness – A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or combination of
significant deficiencies, that results in more than a remote likelihood that a material
misstatement of the financial statements will not be prevented or detected. Source: AICPA;
http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/AuditAttest/DownloadableDocuments/AU-
00325.pdf

Materiality – Materiality is “the magnitude of an omission or misstatement of accounting
information that, in the light of surrounding circumstances, makes it probable that the judgment
of a reasonable person relying on the information would have been changed by the omission or
misstatement.” Materiality is influenced by the needs of financial statement users who rely on
the financial statements to make judgments about the client’s financial position and results of
operation and the auditor must consider audit risk and must determine a materiality level for the
financial statements. Source: AICPA; http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/AuditAttest/
DownloadableDocuments/AU-00312.pdf
Nation states – A sovereign state in which the vast majority of citizens or subjects maintain
common factors such as language or culture.

Neural network – Computer technology that mimics the human brain – processing information,
solving problems, and making predictions.

Normalized data (statistically) – The statistical process of converting all of the values for an
attribute to a number between 0 and 1; or to give a percentage or ratio of a particular value to
the range of possible values for the attribute. Note: Statistically normalized data is different from
the data structure process known as normalization.

Online analytical processing – OLAP is an approach to analyzing and querying multi-dimensional
data, and is a part of the business intelligence discipline.

Operating effectiveness – Operating effectiveness is concerned with determining if “controls
operate with sufficient effectiveness to achieve the related control objectives during a specified
period.” This is a function of how control is applied, the consistency with which it is applied and
by whom it is applied. Source: AICPA;
http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/InformationTechnology/Resources/
InternalControl/DownloadableDocuments/ITEC_RBA_DiscPaper.pdf

Output controls – Controls that are employed to safeguard information, especially printed
objects, at the output stage of the business process. For instance, when payroll checks are
printed, output controls would ensure that the figures on the checks are accurate.

Password spraying – A style of brute force attack in which the malicious actor attempts a single
password against many accounts before moving on to attempt a second password, and so on.

Personally identifiable information – Information that can be used to distinguish or trace an
individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information
that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

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