Glossary of Terms

Please select: A - D • E F G H I J K L M • N - Z

E
EBS Emergency Broadcast System
ECA Exposure Control Area
ECC Emergency Coordinating Center
ECL Emergency Classification Level
EENET Emergency Educational Network
ELECTRONIC VAULTING Transfer of data to an offsite storage facility via a communication link rather than via portable media. Typically used for batch/journaled updates to critical files to supplement full backups taken periodically.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT The effective use of resources to prepare for, respond to, recover from, or mitigate the consequences of an emergency or a disaster. Associated terms: crisis management, disaster management.
EFSEC Energy Facility Site Evaluation council
EIS Environmental Impact Statement
EMA Emergency Management Assistance
EMC Emergency Management Council
EMERGENCY A sudden, unexpected event requiring immediate action due to potential threat to health and safety, the environment, or property.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS The discipline which ensures an organization, or community's readiness to respond to an emergency in a coordinated, timely, and effective manner.
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES A plan of action to commence immediately to prevent the loss of life and minimize injury and property damage.
EMI Emergency Management Institute
EMP Emergency Management Program/Electromagnetic Pulse.
EMT Emergency Management Training
EOC Emergency Operations Center.
  A common term used in business contingency planning to refer to the pre-planned, pre-arranged location from which the Emergency Response Coordinator, the emergency management team, and/or senior corporate managers will manage and direct emergency response and disaster recovery operation. (See Command Center).
EOF Emergency Operations Facility
EOP Emergency Operations Plan
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPIO Emergency Public Information Officer
EPZ Emergency Planning Zone
ERC Employee Relief Center.
  A predetermined location for employees and their families to obtain food, supplies, financial assistance, etc., in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
ESD Employment Security Department
EXERCISE A simulation or drill during which planned business recovery actions and procedures are performed or simulated as they would be in response to an actual disaster or business interruption. See Also Test Plan.
EXPOSURE A state or condition of being unprotected. Vulnerability to harm or loss. In the business sense, the condition of having corporate assets and/or resources subject to risk.
EXTENDED OUTAGE A lengthy, unplanned interruption in system availability due to computer hardware or software problems, or communication failures.
EXTRA EXPENSE COVERAGE Insurance coverage for disaster related expenses which may be incurred until operations are fully recovered after a disaster.
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FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FACILITIES A location containing the equipment, supplies, voice and data communication lines, to conduct transactions required to conduct business under normal conditions. SIMILAR TERMS: Primary Site, Primary Processing Facility, Primary Office Facility.
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FCO Federal Coordinating Officer
FCPA Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. An act of congress mandating that corporate officers and responsible managers ensure the appropriate degree of control to effectively safeguard corporate assets.
FDA Food and Drug Administration
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
FFTF Fast Flux Test Facility
FILE BACKUP The practice of dumping (copying) a file stored on disk or tape to another disk or tape. This is done for protection case the active file gets damaged.
FILE RECOVERY The restoration of computer files using backup copies.
FILE SERVER The central repository of shared files and applications in a computer network (LAN).
FIRECOM State-wide use Common Fire Channel
FNAMS FEMA National Message System
FNARS FEMA National Radio System
FNAVS FEMA National Voice System
FNF Fixed Nuclear Facility
FORWARD RECOVERY The process of recovering a data base to the point of failure by applying active journal or log data to the current backup files of the data base.
FRC Federal Response Center
FRERP Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan
FULL RECOVERY TEST An exercise in which all recovery procedures and strategies are tested (as opposed to a Partial Recovery Test.)
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GA Department of General Administration
GAR Governor's Authorized Representative
GE General Emergency
GENERATOR An independent source of power usually fueled by diesel or natural gas.
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HALON A gas used to extinguish fires effective only in closed areas.
HIGH PRIORITY TASKS Activities vital to the operation of the organization. Currently being phased out due to environmental concerns. SIMILAR TERMS: Critical Functions
HOTSITE An alternate facility that has the equipment and resources to recover the business functions affected by the occurrence of a disaster. Hot-sites may vary in type of facilities offered (such as data processing, communication, or any other critical business functions needing duplication). Location and size of the hot-site will be proportional to the equipment and resources needed. SIMILAR TERMS: Backup site; Recovery site; Recovery Center; Alternate processing site.
HAZARD A dangerous situation or event which may or may not lead to an emergency or disaster.
HAZARD PROBABILITY The likelihood that an event will happen.
HAZARD SOURCE The point of origin of a hazard.
HAZMAT Hazardous Materials
HEAR Hospital Emergency Administrative Radio
HF High Frequency
HMAC Hazardous Materials Advisory Committee
HP Health Physicist
HMPC Hazardous Material Planning Committee
HUMAN THREATS Possible disruptions in operations resulting from human actions (i.e., disgruntled employee, terrorism, etc.).
HVA Hazard Vulnerability Analysis
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ICMA International City Managers' Association
ICS Incident Command System
IEMS Integrated Emergency Management System
IFG Individual and Family Grant
IMA Individual Mobilization Augmentee
IMS Incident Management System
INFORMATION RESOURCES The procedures, equipment, software, and personnel designed, built, operated, maintained and/or employed to collect, record, process, store, retrieve, display, and transmit information.
INS Office of Insurance Commissioner
INSURANCE One of the essential components of risk management, insurance is a means of providing financial protection to corporate shareholders. Insurance protects against financial loss accruing as a result of damage to, destruction of, or theft of tangible assets, and it provides funds for the replacement of these assets. Certain types of insurance may replace the costs of a business interruption. Insurance will not cover loss of market share or loss of customer confidence; it will not guarantee corporate survival; and it will not provide the knowledge or resources to resume operations following a disaster.
INTERAGENCY CONTINGENCY PLANNING REGULATION A regulation written and imposed by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council concerning the need for financial institutions to maintain a working disaster recovery plan.
INTERIM ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE An alternate organization structure that will be used during recovery from a disaster. This temporary structure will typically streamline chains of command and increase decision-making autonomy.
INTERNAL HOTSITES A fully equipped alternate processing site owned and operated by the organization.
INTERRUPTION An outage caused by the failure of one or more communications links with entities outside of the local facility.
IRZ Immediate Response Zone
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JIC Joint Information Center
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KI Potassium Iodide (Thyroid Blocking Agent)
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LAN Local Area Network.
  Computing equipment, in close proximity to each other, connected to a server which houses software that can be access by the users. This method does not utilize a public carrier. SEE ALSO WAN.
LAN RECOVERY The component of Disaster Recovery which deals specifically with the replacement of LAN equipment in the event of a disaster, and the restoration of essential data and software SIMILAR TERMS: Client/Server Recovery
LEASED LINE Usually synonymous with dedicated line.
LINE REROUTING A service offered by many regional telephone companies allowing the computer center to quickly reroute the network of dedicated lines to a backup site.
LINE VOLTAGE REGULATORS Also known as surge protectors. These protectors/regulators distribute electricity evenly.
L&I Labor & Industries
LEPC Local Emergency Planning Committee
LERN Law Enforcement Radio Net
LETS Law Enforcement Teletype System
LOCA Loss of Coolant Accident
LOSS The unrecoverable business resources that are redirected or removed as a result of a disaster. Such losses may be loss of life, revenue, market share, competitive stature, public image, facilities, or operational capability.
LOSS REDUCTION The technique of instituting mechanisms to lessen the exposure to a particular risk. Loss reduction is intended to react to an event and limit its effect. Examples of Loss Reduction include sprinkler systems, insurance policies, and evacuation procedures.
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MAINFRAME COMPUTER A high-end computer processor, with related peripheral devices, capable of supporting large volumes of batch processing, high performance on-line transaction processing systems, and extensive data storage and retrieval. SIMILAR TERMS: Host Computer.
MEDIA TRANSPORTATION COVERAGE An insurance policy designed to cover transportation of items to and from an EDP center, the cost of reconstruction and the tracing of lost items. Coverage is usually extended to transportation and dishonesty or collusion by delivery employees.
MEDNET Medical Emergency Delivery System
MICR EQUIPMENT Magnetic Ink Character Reader.
  Equipment used to imprint machine readable code. Generally, financial institutions use this equipment to prepare paper data for processing, encoding (imprinting) items such as routing and transit numbers, account numbers and dollar amounts.
MOA Memorandum of Agreement
MOBILE HOT SITE A large trailer containing backup equipment and peripheral devices delivered to the scene of the disaster. It is then hooked up to existing communication lines.
MODEM Modulator Demodulator Unit.
  Device that converts data from analog to digital and back again.
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet
MSH Mount St. Helen's
MUDAC Meteorology and Unified Dose Assessment Center


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