Glossary

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U
U
U. S. Controlled Facility
U. S. -Controlled Facility
U. S. Controlled Space
U. S. -Controlled Space
U. S. Nongovernmental Source
U. S. Person
UA
UBD
UDP datagram
UDP port scanning
UID (User ID)
UIRK
UIS
UK
Umask
UN*X
Unapproved Software
Unauthorized Disclosure
Unauthorized Disclosure Of Information
Unauthorized Modification
Unauthorized User
Unavailability
Unbundling
Uncertainty Calculus
Unclassified
Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information
Unclassified Information
Unclassified Telecommunications Security
Uncontrolled Access Area
Undefined External Reference
Under The Hood
Underlap
Undesired Signal Data Emanations
Undocumented Feature
UNICODE directory traversal attack
Uniform Encoding
Uniformed security personnel
Uninteresting
Unit Element
Unit Interval
UNIX
UNIX Brain Damage
UNIX Conspiracy
UNIX Weenie
UNIX:
Unixism
Unnecessary services
Unnumbered Command
Unnumbered Response
Unprivileged User
Unprotect
Unprotected
Unreliable
Unsuccessful Call
Unswizzle
Untrusted Applications
Untrusted Element
Untrusted network
Untrusted Process
Unwind The Stack
Unwind-Protect
Up
Up-Converter
Update
Updating
Upgrade
Upgrade Parameter
Uplink
Upload
UPP
Upthread
Uptime
Urchin
URL
URL filtering
Usable Line Length
Usage
Use policy
Useful Line
Usenet
User
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
User ID
User ID (UID)
User Identification
User Information
User Information Bit
User Information Block
User Partnership Program
User Profile
User/process Interface
User-Obsequious
USG UNIX
Utility Program
Utility Routine
UTSL
UUCPNET
UV
UNIX Conspiracy
  • n. [ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among ITS and TOPS-20 fans, UNIX's growth is the result of a plot, hatched during the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was to hobble AT&T's competitors by making them dependent upon a system whose future evolution was to be under AT&T's control. This would be accomplished by disseminating an operating system that is apparently inexpensive and easily portable, but also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require continuing upgrades from AT&T). This theory was lent a substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the back door entry. In this view, UNIX was designed to be one of the first computer viruses (see virus) -- but a virus spread to computers indirectly by people and market forces, rather than directly through disks and networks. Adherents of this `UNIX virus' theory like to cite the fact that the well-known quotation "UNIX is snake oil" was uttered by DEC president Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively promoting its own family of UNIX workstations. (Olsen now claims to have been misquoted. )