Statistical Terms Glossary

The Ottawa Declaration on Authentication for Electronic Commerce adopted by Ministers at the Ottawa Ministerial Conference on 7-9 October 1998 recognised the importance of authentication for electronic commerce. It outlined a number of actions to promote the development and use of electronic authentication technologies and mechanisms, including continuing work at the international level, together with business, industry and user representatives.

Consequence: a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon;

Contracting, sub-contracting, or 'externalizing' non-core activities to free up cash, personnel, time, and facilities for activities where the firm holds competitive advantage. Firms having strengths in other areas may contract-out data processing, legal, manufacturing, marketing, payroll accounting, or other aspects of their businesses to concentrate on what they do best and thus reduce average unit cost. Outsourcing is often an integral part of downsizing or reengineering. Also called contracting out.

Is a computer network which is built on top of another network. Nodes in the overlay can be thought of as being connected by virtual or logical links, each of which corresponds to a path, perhaps through many physical links, in the underlying network. For example, many peer-to-peer networks are overlay networks because they run on top of the Internet. Dial-up Internet is an overlay upon the telephone network.

Is a website offering current and historical computer security tools, exploits, and security advisories. It is operated by a non-profit organization of hackers that publish new security information and offer tools for educational and testing purposes.

Denotes the transfer of an individual packet over a connection between an input port and an output port within a given packet-switching node through the packet-switching fabric.

Is the relaying of packets from one network segment to another by nodes in a computer network. The simplest forwarding model - unicasting - involves a packet being relayed from link to link along a chain leading from the packet's source to its destination. However, other forwarding strategies are commonly used. Broadcasting requires a packet to be duplicated and copies sent on multiple links with the goal of delivering a copy to every device on the network. In practice, broadcast packets are not forwarded everywhere on a network, but only to devices within a broadcast domain, making broadcast a relative term. Less common than broadcasting, but perhaps of greater utility and theoretical significance is multicasting, where a packet is selectively duplicated and copies delivered to each of a set of recipients.

The transmission of real time voice in a packet switching network.

A data communications service in which a data stream is divided into units called packets that are separately routed to a destination where the original message is then reconstituted.

A service that allows transmitting a signal, usually only an alarm tone, via radio from any telephone in the public-switched network to a personal, portable receiving device in a defined operating area. More sophisticated systems provide audible or visual display messages.

Palestinian IT Association “PITA” was founded in 1999 by a group of Palestinian entrepreneurs who wanted to create a non-government body to defend the interests of the ICT sector. PITA was legally registered as a trade association by Ministry of National Economy as a non-profit trade organization and began operations in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank with One employee and a member base of 25 Palestinian ICT companies.

A partial credit guarantee (PCG) represents a promise of full and timely debt service payment up to a predetermined amount. Typically, the sum that IFC pays out under the guarantee covers creditors irrespective of the cause of default. The guarantee amount may vary over the life of the transaction based on the borrower's expected cash flows and creditors' concerns regarding the stability of these cash flows.

Password cracking is the process of recovering passwords from data that has been stored in or transmitted by a computer system. A common approach is to repeatedly try guesses for the password. The purpose of password cracking might be to help a user recover a forgotten password (though installing an entirely new password is less of a security risk, but involves system administration privileges), to gain unauthorized access to a system, or as a preventive measure by system administrators to check for easily crackable passwords. On a file-by file basis, password cracking is utilized to gain access to digital evidence for which a judge has allowed access but the particular file's access is restricted.

A grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.

Is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. A patent application filed under the PCT is called an international application, or PCT application.

Is a patent law multilateral treaty concluded on 1 June 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland, by 53 States and the European Patent Organisation (an intergovernmental organization). Its aim is to harmonize formal procedures such as the requirements to obtain a filing date for a patent application, the form and content of a patent application, and representation.

The amount of time taken to break even on an investment. Since this method ignores the time value of money and cash flows after the payback period, it can provide only a partial picture of whether the investment is worthwhile.

Third party that owns and operates payphones connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and located on another party's premises.

A switch ensures linking subscribers with each other within the same switch ( same area) or different switches( different areas).

PiPOP is a program initiated by PCA in order to address the "digital divide" in the Lebanese society. For this purpose, PCA is collaborating with several parties, civil public, and/or international organizations to generate PiPOP centers in various parts of the country. By launching this project PCA had introduced the world of information technology to communities who do not have access for this facility, for income reason.

Metwork in which each computer is capable of functioning as a client and a server; users on the network can freely share resources on their computer or access shared resources on other computers.

In mobile phone, a term generally used to describe the number of active mobile phone numbers (usually as a percentage) within a specific population.

Is how organizations, public and private, measure the quality of their activities and services.

A two-way, 1900 MHz digital voice, messaging and data service designed as the second generation of cellular.