An overview of all technical terms
| Mail Server: | Server system for transmitting, receiving, storing and managing electronic messages across networks and the internet. |
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| Maintenance Window: | Scheduled period for performing maintenance, updates or technical changes to IT systems and network infrastructures. |
| Malware: | Describes malicious software. |
| Man-in-the-Middle-Attack (MITM Attack): | Cyberattack in which an attacker secretly positions themselves between two communicating parties to intercept or manipulate transmitted data. |
| Managed: | Term for network components and services that are centrally configured, monitored and administered. |
| Managed Service Providers (MSP): | Provides IT services as an external provider. |
| Managed Switch: | Configurable network switch providing advanced functions for centralised network control, monitoring and security. |
| Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU): | Maximum permitted size of a data unit that can be transmitted across a network interface or specific network path without being divided. |
| Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): | Metric measuring the average time between the occurrence of an IT incident or security event and its detection. |
| Mean Time to Repair (MTTR): | Metric measuring the average time required to resolve a failure and restore an IT system to operational condition. |
| Media Access Control (MAC): | Data Link Layer mechanism that controls how network devices access a shared transmission medium and identifies network interfaces. |
| Media Access Control Security (MACsec): | Security standard for encrypting and protecting Ethernet connections at the Data Link Layer of the OSI model. |
| Medium Dependent Interface (MDI): | Interface definition specifying the assignment of transmit and receive lines on Ethernet ports. |
| Mesh Network: | Network topology in which multiple or all nodes have additional direct connections, providing alternative communication paths between devices. |
| Metro Ethernet: | Ethernet-based carrier services used to connect sites within a city or region. |
| Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): | Network connecting sites within a city or region with high bandwidth. |
| Module: | Refers to a replaceable hardware or software unit. |
| MPLS L3VPN: | Networking technology for securely separating and connecting multiple IP networks across a shared MPLS infrastructure. |
| Multi Cloud: | IT strategy involving the parallel use of cloud services from multiple independent cloud providers within a shared IT infrastructure. |
| Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP): | Network protocol that prevents loops in Ethernet networks by assigning multiple VLANs to different Spanning Tree instances. |
| Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS): | Method that forwards data packets through the network using short labels instead of IP addresses. |
| Mutual TLS (mTLS): | Security mechanism that uses digital certificates to authenticate both communication parties within an encrypted TLS connection. |