Criminal Justice Information Services Cyber Security Program

Updated version 5.9.2 as of May 2023

Disclaimer: Organizations are not required as a matter of law to comply with this document, unless legislation, or a direction given under legislation or by some other lawful authority, compels them to comply. This document does not override any obligations imposed by legislation or law. Furthermore, if this document conflicts with legislation or law, the latter takes precedence.

The CJIS Compliance Automation Suite provides pre-bundled Investigations, Correlation Rules, Alarms, and Reports that are designed to support a minimum set of security requirements for access to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division systems and information. They are also designed to protect and safeguard Criminal Justice Information (CJI) as outlined by their cybersecurity policy, which can be found here. This minimum standard of security requirements ensures continuity of information protection. The essential premise of the CJIS Security Policy is to provide the appropriate controls to protect CJI, from creation through dissemination; whether at rest or in transit. This pre-bundled content is automatically associated with the correct CJIS control objectives that are supported by LogRhythm Enterprise. Various lists are also available, some of which are preconfigured and others that can be catered to your environment, processes, and system classifications.

Of the 131 substantive and auditable controls, 53 (40%) are supported by the LogRhythm SIEM in the form of mitigating and compensating controls. LogRhythm can also be leveraged for potentially further coverage through general SIEM functionality. LogRhythm’s core set of content offered through the Consolidated Compliance Framework (CCF) is mapped to CJIS controls, offering a streamlined approach to compliance through SIEM technology. LogRhythm SIEM technology and content align with the CJIS core objectives of protecting CJI through many common control objectives including user access management, privileged access management, retention requirements, business continuity, incident response, and overall assistance as a safeguarding mechanism to strengthen the organization’s security posture.

With each audience involved in CJIS audits having varying objectives and attestation requirements, content packages from the SIEM can be customized and delivered by configuring Report Packages for scheduled generation and on-demand. To identify areas of non-compliance in real-time, you can leverage Investigations and Alarms for immediate analysis of activities that impact your organization's critical systems.

Web Console Incident Response is a core aspect of this suite as correlation rules and investigations are specifically designed to work with LogRhythm’s Case Management and Web Console. You can easily add forensic evidence to Cases as you build your understanding of the incident at hand and centralize your evidence for authorities to review. Further, Web Console dashboards can be created according to the needs of those parties involved with the CJIS compliance program.

LogRhythm’s goal is to recognize the changing needs of an organization’s pursuit of compliance as this follows a maturity module. The LogRhythm Compliance Maturity Model not only demonstrates an adaptable, dynamic road-map to compliance, but bridges the gap as the organization transitions into a better security posture and begins maturing their own internal security organization.

CJIS Specific Terminology:

Access to Criminal Justice Information. The physical or logical (electronic) ability, right or privilege to view, modify or make use of Criminal Justice Information.

Administration of Criminal Justice. The detection, apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post-trial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminal offenders. It also includes criminal identification activities; the collection, storage, and dissemination of criminal history record information; and criminal justice employment. In addition, administration of criminal justice includes “crime prevention programs” to the extent access to criminal history record information is limited to law enforcement agencies for law enforcement programs (e.g. record checks of individuals who participate in Neighborhood Watch or “safe house” programs) and the result of such checks will not be disseminated outside the law enforcement agency.

Agency Controlled Mobile Device. A mobile device that is centrally managed by an agency for the purpose of securing the device for potential access to CJI. The device can be agency issued or BYOD (personally owned).

Agency Coordinator (AC). A staff member of the Contracting Government Agency who manages the agreement between the Contractor and agency.

Agency Issued Mobile Device. A mobile device that is owned by an agency and issued to an individual for use. It is centrally managed by the agency for the purpose of securing the device for potential access to CJI. The device is not BYOD (personally owned).

Agency Liaison (AL). Coordinator of activities between the criminal justice agency and the noncriminal justice agency when responsibility for a criminal justice system has been delegated by a criminal justice agency to a noncriminal justice agency, which has in turn entered into an agreement with a contractor. The agency liaison shall, inter alia, monitor compliance with system security requirements. In instances in which the noncriminal justice agency's authority is directly from the CJIS systems agency, there is no requirement for the appointment of an agency liaison.

Asymmetric Encryption. A type of encryption that uses key pairs for encryption. One key is used to encrypt a message and another key to decrypt the message. Asymmetric encryption is also commonly known as public key encryption.

Authorized User/Personnel. An individual, or group of individuals, who have been appropriately vetted through a national fingerprint-based record check and have been granted access to CJI.

Authorized Recipient. (1) A criminal justice agency or federal agency authorized to receive CHRI pursuant to federal statute or executive order; (2) A nongovernmental entity authorized by federal statute or executive order to receive CHRI for noncriminal justice purposes; or (3) A government agency authorized by federal statute or executive order, or state statute which has been approved by the United States Attorney General to receive CHRI for noncriminal justice purposes.

Availability. The degree to which information, a system, subsystem, or equipment is operable and in a useable state; frequently represented as a proportion of time the element is in a functioning condition.

Biographic Data. Information collected about individuals associated with a unique case, and not necessarily connected to identity data. Biographic Data does not provide a history of an individual, only information related to a unique case.

Biometric Data. When applied to CJI, it is used to identify individuals, and includes the following types: fingerprints, palm prints, DNA, iris, and facial recognition.

Case / Incident History. All relevant information gathered about an individual, organization, incident, or combination thereof, arranged so as to serve as an organized record to provide analytic value for a criminal justice organization. In regards to CJI, it is the information about the history of criminal incidents.

Certificate Authority (CA) Certificate. Digital certificates required for certificate-based authentication that are issued to tell the client computers and servers that it can trust other certificates that are issued by this CA.

Channeler. A FBI approved contractor, who has entered into an agreement with an Authorized Recipient(s), to receive noncriminal justice applicant fingerprint submissions and collect the associated fees. The Channeler ensures fingerprint submissions are properly and adequately completed, electronically forwards fingerprint submissions to the FBI's CJIS Division for national noncriminal justice criminal history record check, and receives electronic record check results for dissemination to Authorized Recipients. A Channeler is essentially an "expediter" rather than a user of criminal history record check results.

Cloud Client. A machine or software application that accesses cloud services over a network connection, perhaps on behalf of a subscriber.

Cloud Computing. A distributed computing model that permits on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (i.e., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services), software, and information.

Cloud Provider. An organization that provides cloud computing services.

Cloud Subscriber. A person or organization that is a customer of a cloud computing service provider.

CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB). The governing organization within the FBI CJIS Advisory Process composed of representatives from criminal justice and national security agencies within the United States. The APB reviews policy, technical, and operational issues relative to CJIS Division programs and makes subsequent recommendations to the Director of the FBI.

CJIS Audit Unit (CAU). The organization within the FBI CJIS Division responsible to perform audits of CSAs to verify compliance with the CJIS Security Policy.

CJIS Security Policy. The FBI CJIS Security Policy document as published by the FBI CJIS ISO; the document containing this glossary.

CJIS Systems Agency (CSA). A duly authorized state, federal, international, tribal, or territorial criminal justice agency on the CJIS network providing statewide (or equivalent) service to its criminal justice users with respect to the CJI from various systems managed by the FBI CJIS Division. There shall be only one CSA per state or territory. In federal agencies, the CSA may be the interface or switch to other federal agencies connecting to the FBI CJIS systems.

CJIS Systems Agency Information Security Officer (CSA ISO). The appointed FBI CJIS Division personnel responsible to coordinate information security efforts at all CJIS interface agencies.

CJIS Systems Officer (CSO). The individual located within the CJIS Systems Agency responsible for the administration of the CJIS network on behalf of the CJIS Systems Agency.

Compact Council. The entity created by the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact of 1998 that has the authority to promulgate rules and procedures governing the use of the III system for noncriminal justice purposes.

Compact Officers. The leadership of the Compact Council, oversees the infrastructure established by the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact Act of 1998, which is used by ratifying states to exchange criminal records for noncriminal justice purposes. Their primary responsibilities are to promulgate rules and procedures for the effective and appropriate use of the III system.

Compensating Controls. Compensating controls are temporary control measures implemented in lieu of the required control measures when an agency cannot meet the AA requirement due to legitimate technical or business constraints. The compensating controls must:

1. Meet the intent of the CJIS Security Policy AA requirement

2. Provide a similar level of protection or security as the original AA requirement

3. Not rely upon the existing requirements for AA as compensating controls

Additionally, compensating controls may rely upon other, non-AA, existing requirements as compensating controls and/or be combined with new controls to create compensating controls.

Computer Security Incident Response Capability (CSIRC). A collection of personnel, systems, and processes that are used to efficiently and quickly manage a centralized response to any sort of  computer security incident which may occur.

Confidentiality. The concept of ensuring that information is observable only to those who have been granted authorization to do so.

Contractor. A private business, agency or individual which has entered into an agreement for the administration of criminal justice or noncriminal justice functions with a Criminal Justice Agency or a Noncriminal Justice Agency. Also, a private business approved by the FBI CJIS Division to contract with Noncriminal Justice Agencies to perform noncriminal justice functions associated with civil fingerprint submission for hiring purposes.

Contracting Government Agency (CGA). The government agency, whether a Criminal Justice Agency or a Noncriminal Justice Agency, which enters into an agreement with a private contractor.

Crime Reports Data. The data collected through the Uniform Crime Reporting program and reported upon annually by the FBI CJIS division used to analyze the crime statistics for the United States.

Criminal History Record Information (CHRI). A subset of CJI. Any notations or other written or electronic evidence of an arrest, detention, complaint, indictment, information or other formal criminal charge relating to an identifiable person that includes identifying information regarding the individual as well as the disposition of any charges.

Criminal Justice Agency (CJA). The courts, a governmental agency, or any subunit of a governmental agency which performs the administration of criminal justice pursuant to a statute or executive order and which allocates a substantial part of its annual budget to the administration of criminal justice. State and federal Inspectors General Offices are included.

Criminal Justice Agency User Agreement. A terms-of-service agreement that must be signed prior to accessing CJI. This agreement is required by each CJA and spells out user’s responsibilities, the forms and methods of acceptable use, penalties for their violation, disclaimers, and so on.

Criminal Justice Conveyance. A criminal justice conveyance is any enclosed mobile vehicle used for the purposes of criminal justice activities with the capability to comply, during operational periods, with the requirements of Section 5.9.1.3.

Criminal Justice Information (CJI). Criminal Justice Information is the abstract term used to refer to all of the FBI CJIS provided data necessary for law enforcement agencies to perform their mission and enforce the laws, including but not limited to: biometric, identity history, person, organization, property (when accompanied by any personally identifiable information), and case/incident history data. In addition, CJI refers to the FBI CJIS-provided data necessary for civil agencies to perform their mission; including, but not limited to data used to make hiring decisions. The following type of data are exempt from the protection levels required for CJI: transaction control type numbers (e.g. ORI, NIC, UCN, etc.) when not accompanied by information that reveals CJI or PII.

Criminal Justice Information Services Division (FBI CJIS or CJIS). The FBI division responsible for the collection, warehousing, and timely dissemination of relevant CJI to the FBI and to qualified law enforcement, criminal justice, civilian, academic, employment, and licensing agencies.

Data. see Criminal Justice Information.

Decryption. The inverse cryptographic operation used to convert encrypted information back into a plaintext (readable) format.

Degauss. Neutralize a magnetic field to erase information from a magnetic disk or other storage device. In the field of information technology, degauss has become synonymous with erasing information whether or not the medium is magnetic. In the event the device to be degaussed is not magnetic (e.g. solid state drive, USB storage device), steps other than magnetic degaussing may be required to render the information irretrievable from the device.

Department of Justice (DoJ). The Department within the U.S. Government responsible to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law, to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic, to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime, to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior, and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.

Digital Media. Any form of electronic media designed to store data in a digital format. This includes, but is not limited to: memory device in laptops, computers, and mobile devices; and any removable, transportable electronic media, such as magnetic tape or disk, optical disk, flash drives, external hard drives, or digital memory card.

Digital Signature. A digital signature consists of three algorithms: (1) A key generation algorithm that selects a private key uniformly at random from a set of possible private keys. The algorithm outputs the private key and a corresponding public key. (2) A signing algorithm that, given a message and a private key, produces a signature. (3) A signature verifying algorithm that, given a message, public key, and a signature, either accepts or rejects the message’s claim to authenticity. Two main properties are required. First, a signature generated from a fixed message and fixed private key should verify the authenticity of that message by using the corresponding public key. Secondly, it should be computationally infeasible to generate a valid signature for a party who does not possess the private key.

Direct Access. (1) Having the authority to access systems managed by the FBI CJIS Division, whether by manual or automated methods, not requiring the assistance of, or intervention by, any other party or agency (28 CFR, Chapter 1, Part 20). (2) Having the authority to query or update national databases maintained by the FBI CJIS Division including national queries and updates automatically or manually generated by the CSA.

Dissemination. The transmission/distribution of CJI to Authorized Recipients within an agency.

Encryption. A form of cryptology that applies a cryptographic operation to provide confidentiality of (sensitive) information.

Escort. Authorized personnel who accompany a visitor at all times while within a physically secure location to ensure the protection and integrity of the physically secure location and any Criminal Justice Information therein. The use of cameras or other electronic means used to monitor a physically secure location does not constitute an escort.

Facsimile (Fax). Facsimile is: (a) a document received and printed on a single or multi-function stand-alone device, (b) a single or multi-function stand-alone device for the express purpose of transmitting and receiving documents from a like device over a standard telephone line, or (c) a facsimile server, application, service which implements email-like technology and transfers documents over a network.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency within the DOJ responsible to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.

FBI CJIS Information Security Officer (FBI CJIS ISO). The FBI personnel responsible for the maintenance and dissemination of the FBI CJIS Security Policy; the liaison between the FBI and the CSA’s ISOs and other relevant security points-of-contact (POCs); the provider of technical guidance as to the intent and implementation of technical policy issues; the POC for computer incident notification which also disseminates security alerts to the CSOs and ISOs.

Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, a US Federal law that established information security standards for the protection of economic and national security interests of the United States. It requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and information systems that support the operations and assets of the agency, including those provided or managed by another agency, contractor, or other source.

For Official Use Only (FOUO) — A caveat applied to unclassified sensitive information that may be exempt from mandatory release to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C 522. In general, information marked FOUO shall not be disclosed to anybody except Government (Federal, State, tribal, or local) employees or contractors with a need to know.

Full-feature Operating System — Full-feature operating systems are traditional operating systems used by a standard desktop computer (e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX/macOS, LINUX/UNIX, etc.). These operating systems are generally open to user control and configuration and therefore require configuration management to properly secure, or “harden”, these devices from malicious network based technical attacks (e.g. malware, spyware, hackers, etc.). These operating systems require traditional protection applications such as antivirus programs and personal firewalls.

Guest Operating System. An operating system that has emulated hardware presented to it by a host operating system. Also referred to as the virtual machine (VM).

Host Operating System. In the context of virtualization, the operating system that interfaces with the actual physical hardware and arbitrates between it and the guest operating systems. It is also referred to as a hypervisor.

Hybrid Encryption. A type of encryption where both asymmetric encryption and symmetric encryption keys are used creating what is referred to as cipher suites. In a hybrid solution the asymmetric encryption keys are used for client/server certificate exchange to provide session integrity while the symmetric encryption keys are used for bulk data encryption to provide data confidentiality.

Hypervisor. See Host Operating System.

Identity History Data. Textual data that corresponds with an individual’s biometric data, providing a history of criminal and/or civil events for the identified individual.

In-Band. The communication service channel (network connection, email, SMS text, phone call, etc.) used to obtain an authenticator is the same as the one used for login.

Indirect Access. Having the authority to access systems containing CJI without providing the user the ability to conduct transactional activities (the capability to query or update) on state and national systems (e.g. CJIS Systems Agency (CSA), State Identification Bureau (SIB), or national repositories).

Information. see Criminal Justice Information.

Information Exchange Agreement. An agreement that codifies the rules by which two parties engage in the sharing of information. These agreements typically include language which establishes some general duty-of-care over the other party’s information, whether and how it can be further disseminated, penalties for violations, the laws governing the agreement (which establishes venue), procedures for the handling of shared information at the termination of the agreement, and so on. This document will ensure consistency with applicable federal laws, directives, policies, regulations, standards and guidance.

Information Security Officer (ISO). Typically a member of an organization who has the responsibility to establish and maintain information security policy, assesses threats and vulnerabilities, performs risk and control assessments, oversees the governance of security operations, and establishes information security training and awareness programs. The ISO also usually interfaces with security operations to manage implementation details and with auditors to verify compliance to established policies.

Information System. A system of people, data, and processes, whether manual or automated, established for the purpose of managing information.

Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The national fingerprint and criminal history system maintained by the FBI CJIS Division that provides the law enforcement community with automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent searching capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses.

Integrity. The perceived consistency of expected outcomes, actions, values, and methods of an individual or organization. As it relates to data, it is the concept that data is preserved in a consistent and correct state for its intended use.

Interconnection Security Agreement (ISA). An agreement much like an Information Exchange Agreement as mentioned above, but concentrating more on formalizing the technical and security requirements pertaining to some sort of interface between the parties’ information systems.

Interface Agency. A legacy term used to describe agencies with direct connections to the CSA. This term is now used predominantly in a common way to describe any sub-agency of a CSA or SIB that leverages the CSA or SIB as a conduit to FBI CJIS information.

Internet Protocol (IP). A protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP. IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering distinguished protocol datagrams (packets) from the source host to the destination host solely based on their addresses.

Interstate Identification Index (III). The CJIS service that manages automated submission and requests for CHRI that is warehoused subsequent to the submission of fingerprint information. Subsequent requests are directed to the originating State as needed.

Jailbreak (Jailbroken). The process of attaining privileged control (known as “root access”) of a device running the Apple iOS operating system that ultimately allows a user the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized applications that require administrator level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise not allowed.

Laptop Devices. Laptop devices are mobile devices with a full-featured operating system (e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX/macOS, LINUX/UNIX, etc.). Laptops are typically intended for transport via vehicle mount or portfolio-sized carry case, but not on the body. This definition does not include pocket/handheld devices (e.g. smartphones), or mobile devices that feature a limited feature operating system (e.g. tablets).

Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP). A secure, Internet-based communications portal provided by the FBI CJIS Division for use by law enforcement, first responders, criminal justice professionals, and anti-terrorism and intelligence agencies around the globe. Its primary purpose is to provide a platform on which various law enforcement agencies can collaborate on FOUO matters.

Limited-feature Operating System. Limited-feature operating systems are designed specifically, for the mobile environment where battery life and power efficiency are primary design drivers (e.g. Apple iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry OS, etc.). There operating systems permit limited user control, but are inherently more resistant than a full-feature operating system to certain types of network based technical attacks due to the limited feature sets. Devices using these operating systems are required to be managed by a mobile device management solution.

Logical Access. The technical means (e.g., read, create, modify, delete a file, execute a program, or use an external connection) for an individual or other computer system to utilize CJI or CJIS applications.

Logical Partitioning. When the host operating system, or hypervisor, allows multiple guest operating systems to share the same physical resources.

Local Agency Security Officer (LASO). The primary Information Security contact between a local law enforcement agency and the CSA under which this agency interfaces with the FBI CJIS Division. The LASO actively represents their agency in all matters pertaining to Information Security, disseminates Information Security alerts and other material to their constituents, maintains Information Security documentation (including system configuration data), assists with Information Security audits of hardware and procedures, and keeps the CSA informed as to any Information Security needs and problems.

Management Control Agreement (MCA). An agreement between parties that wish to share or pool resources that codifies precisely who has administrative control over, versus overall management and legal responsibility for, assets covered under the agreement. An MCA must ensure the CJA’s authority remains with regard to all aspects of Section 3.2.2. The MCA usually results in the CJA having ultimate authority over the CJI supporting infrastructure administered by the NCJA.

Metadata. Structured information that describes, explains, locates or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource. Metadata is commonly referred to as data about data, information about information, or information describing the characteristics of data.

Mobile Device. Any portable device used to access CJI via a wireless connection (e.g. cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.).

Mobile Device Management (MDM). Centralized administration and control of mobile devices specifically including, but not limited to, cellular phones, smart phones, and tablets. Management typically includes the ability to configure device settings and prevent a user from changing them, remotely locating a device in the event of theft or loss, and remotely locking or wiping a device. Management can also include over-the-air distribution of applications and updating installed applications.

Mobile (WiFi) Hotspot. A mobile (WiFi) hotspot is a zone or area associated with a mobile device (e.g. smartphone, air card) allowing wireless connectivity to the Internet typically through a cellular connection.

National Crime Information Center (NCIC). An information system which stores CJI which can be queried by appropriate Federal, state, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies.

National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). A system mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 that is used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to instantly determine via telephone or other electronic means whether the transfer of a firearm would be in violation of Section 922 (g) or (n) of Title 18, United States Code, or state law, by evaluating the prospective buyer’s criminal history.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Founded in 1901, NIST is a nonregulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic and national security.

Noncriminal Justice Agency (NCJA). A governmental agency, or any subunit thereof, that provides services primarily for purposes other than the administration of criminal justice. Examples of services include, but not limited to, employment suitability, licensing determinations, immigration and naturalization matters, and national security clearances.

NCJA (Government). A Federal, state, local, or tribal governmental agency or any subunit thereof whose charter does not include the responsibility to administer criminal justice, but may have a need to process CJI. An example would be the central IT organization within a state government that administers equipment on behalf of a state law-enforcement agency.

NCJA (Private). A private agency or subunit thereof whose charter does not include the responsibility to administer criminal justice, but may have a need to process CJI. An example would include a local bank.

NCJA (Public). A public agency or sub-unit thereof whose charter does not include the responsibility to administer criminal justice, but may have a need to process CJI. An example would include a county school board which uses CHRI to assist in employee hiring decisions.

Noncriminal Justice Purpose. The uses of criminal history records for purposes authorized by federal or state law other than purposes relating to the administration of criminal justice, including employment suitability, licensing determinations, immigration and naturalization matters, and national security clearances.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The agency within the Executive Branch of the Federal government responsible to oversee the preparation of the federal budget, to assist in the supervision of other Executive Branch agencies, and to oversee and coordinate the Presidential Administration’s procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies.

One-time Password. A disposable, single-use standard authenticator for access CJI. One-time passwords are: minimum of six (6) randomly generated characters, valid for a single session, and if not used, expire within a minimum of five (5) minutes after issuance.

Out-of-Band. The communication service channel (network connection, email, SMS text, phone call, etc.) used to obtain an authenticator is separate from that used for login.

Outsourcing. The process of delegating in-house operations to a third-party. For instance, when the administration of criminal justice functions (network operations, dispatch functions, system administration operations, etc.) are performed for the criminal justice agency by a city or county information technology department or are contracted to be performed by a vendor.

Outsourcing Standard. National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact Council’s Outsourcing Standard. The Compact Council’s uniform standards and processes for the interstate and Federal-State exchange of criminal history records for noncriminal justice purposes.

Partitioning. Managing guest operating system, or virtual machine, access to hardware so that each guest OS can access its own resources but cannot encroach on the other guest operating systems resources or any resources not allocated for virtualization use.

Personal Firewall. An application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PII is information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as name, social security number, or biometric records, alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, or mother’s maiden name.

Physical Access. The physical ability, right or privilege to view, modify or make use of Criminal Justice Information (CJI) by means of physical presence within the proximity of computers and network devices (e.g. the ability to insert a boot disk or other device into the system, make a physical connection with electronic equipment, etc.).

Physical Media. Physical media refers to media in printed form. This definition includes, but is not limited to, printed documents, printed imagery, printed facsimile.

Physical Partitioning. When the host operating system, or hypervisor, assigns separate physical resources to each guest operating systems, or virtual machine.

Physically Secure Location. A facility, a criminal justice conveyance, or an area, a room, or a group of rooms, within a facility with both the physical and personnel security controls sufficient to protect CJI and associated information systems.

Pocket/Handheld Mobile Device. Pocket/Handheld mobile devices (e.g. smartphones) are intended to be carried in a pocket or holster attached to the body and feature an operating system with limited functionality (e.g., iOS, Android, BlackBerry, etc.). This definition does not include tablet and laptop devices.

Property Data. Information about vehicles and property associated with a crime.

Rap Back. A NGI service that allows authorized agencies to receive notification of subsequent criminal activity reported to the FBI committed by persons of interest.

Receive-Only Terminal (ROT). A device that is configured to accept a limited type of data but is technically prohibited from forming or transmitting data, browsing or navigating internal or external networks, or otherwise performing outside the scope of receive only (e.g., a printer, dumb terminal, etc.).

Repository Manager, or Chief Administrator. The designated manager of the agency having oversight responsibility for a CSA’s fingerprint identification services. If both state fingerprint identification services and CJIS systems control are managed within the same state agency, the repository manager and CSO may be the same person.

Root (Rooting, Rooted). The process of attaining privileged control (known as “root access”) of a device running the Android operating system that ultimately allows a user the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized applications that require administrator level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise not allowed.

Secondary Dissemination. The promulgation of CJI from a releasing agency to an authorized recipient agency when the recipient agency has not been previously identified in a formal information exchange agreement.

Security Addendum (SA). A uniform addendum to an agreement between the government agency and a private contractor, approved by the Attorney General of the United States, which specifically authorizes access to criminal history record information, limits the use of the information to the purposes for which it is provided, ensures the security and confidentiality of the information consistent with existing regulations and the CJIS Security Policy, provides for sanctions, and contains such other provisions as the Attorney General may require.

Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU). Designation of information in the United States federal government that, though unclassified, often requires strict controls over its distribution. SBU is a broad category of information that includes material covered by such designations as For Official Use Only (FOUO), Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES), Sensitive Homeland Security Information, Security Sensitive Information (SSI), Critical Infrastructure Information (CII), etc. Some categories of SBU information have authority in statute or regulation (e.g. SSI, CII) while others, including FOUO, do not. As of May 9, 2008, the more appropriate terminology to use is Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Server/Client Computer Certificate (device-based). Digital certificates that are issued to servers or client computers or devices by a CA and used to prove device identity between server and/or client computer devices during the authentication process.

Service. The organized system of apparatus, appliances, personnel, etc, that supply some tangible benefit to the consumers of this service. In the context of CJI, this usually refers to one of the applications that can be used to process CJI.

Shredder. A device used for shredding documents, often as a security measure to prevent unapproved persons from reading them. Strip-cut shredders, also known as straight-cut or spaghetti-cut, slice the paper into long, thin strips but are not considered secure. Cross-cut shredders provide more security by cutting paper vertically and horizontally into confetti-like pieces.

Smartphone. See Pocket/Handheld Mobile Devices.

Social Engineering. The act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases, the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim.

Software Patch. A piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update, a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs and improving the usability or performance. Though meant to fix problems, poorly designed patches can sometimes introduce new problems. As such, patches should be installed in a test environment prior to being installed in a live, operational system. Patches often can be found in multiple locations but should be retrieved only from sources agreed upon through organizational policy.

State and Federal Agency User Agreement. A written agreement that each CSA or SIB Chief shall execute with the FBI CJIS Division stating their willingness to demonstrate conformance with the FBI CJIS Security Policy prior to the establishment of connectivity between organizations. This agreement includes the standards and sanctions governing the use of CJIS systems, as well as verbiage to allow the FBI to periodically audit the CSA as well as to allow the FBI to penetration test its own network from the CSA’s interfaces to it.

State Compact Officer. The representative of a state that is party to the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, and is the chief administrator of the state's criminal history record repository or a designee of the chief administrator who is a regular full-time employee of the repository.

State Identification Bureau (SIB). The state agency with the responsibility for the state’s fingerprint identification services.

State Identification Bureau (SIB) Chief. The SIB Chief is the designated manager of the state’s SIB. If both state fingerprint identification services and CJIS systems control are managed within the same state agency, the SIB Chief and CSO may be the same person.

State of Residency. A state of residency is the state in which an individual claims and can provide documented evidence as proof of being his/her permanent living domicile. CJIS Systems Officers have the latitude to determine what documentation constitutes acceptable proof of residency.

Symmetric Encryption. A type of encryption where the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt a message. Symmetric encryption is also known as secret key encryption.

System. Refer to connections to the FBI’s criminal justice information repositories and the equipment used to establish said connections. In the context of CJI, this usually refers to applications and all interconnecting infrastructure required to use those applications that process CJI.

Tablet Devices. Tablet devices are mobile devices with a limited feature operating system (e.g. iOS, Android, Windows RT, etc.). Tablets typically consist of a touch screen without a permanently attached keyboard intended for transport via vehicle mount or portfolio-sized carry case but not on the body. This definition does not include pocket/handheld devices (e.g. smartphones) or mobile devices with full-featured operating systems (e.g. laptops).

Terminal Agency Coordinator (TAC). Serves as the point of contact at the local agency for matters relating to CJIS information access. A TAC administers CJIS systems programs within the local agency and oversees the agency’s compliance with CJIS systems policies.

User Certificate (user-based). Digital certificates that are unique and issued to individuals by a CA. Though not always required to do so, these specific certificates are often embedded on smart cards or other external devices as a means of distribution to specified users. This certificate is used when individuals need to prove their identity during the authentication process.

Virtual Escort. Authorized personnel who actively monitor a remote maintenance session on Criminal Justice Information (CJI)-processing systems. The escort must have the ability to end the session at any time deemed necessary to ensure the protection and integrity of CJI at all times.

Virtual Machine (VM). See Guest Operating System.

Virtualization. Refers to a methodology of dividing the resources of a computer (hardware and software) into multiple execution environments, by applying one or more concepts or technologies such as hardware and software partitioning, time-sharing, partial or complete machine simulation or emulation allowing multiple operating systems, or images, to run concurrently on the same hardware.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). A set of software, hardware, and standards designed to make it possible to transmit voice over packet-switched networks, either an internal Local Area Network or across the Internet.

Wireless Access Point. A wireless access point is a device that logically connects a wireless client device to an organization’s enterprise network which processes unencrypted CJI.

Wireless (WiFi) Hotspot. A wireless (WiFi) hotspot is a zone or area within a fixed location that allows wireless connectivity to the Internet typically through a wired connection. Hotspots are typically available in public areas such as airports, hotels and restaurants.