Appendix B: External Resources

These resources can level up your security knowledge and technical writing skills. The resources are divided into six categories: foundational references, technical definitions, internet-savvy style guides, writing advice, introductory hacking resources, and additional resources.

Foundational References

Associated Press. The Associated Press Stylebook. 56th ed. New York: Basic Books, 2022. https://www.apstylebook.com/

Editors of Webster’s New World College Dictionaries. Webster’s New World College Dictionary. Fifth ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

“Procedures and instructions.” Microsoft Writing Style Guide. Microsoft Corporation. Accessed March 7, 2023. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/procedures-instructions/

Technical Definitions and Explanations

Christensson, Per. “Techterms.com: The Computer Dictionary.” Accessed January 31, 2023. https://techterms.com/

“Glossary.” OWASP. Updated October 24, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://wiki.owasp.org/index.php/Glossary

“Glossary of Security Terms.” SANS. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.sans.org/security-resources/glossary-of-terms/

Newton, Harry with Steven Shoen. Newton’s Telecom Dictionary; 32nd Updated and Expanded ed. Telecom Publishing, 2022.

Paulsen, Celia and Robert Byers. “Glossary of Key Information Security Terms.” NIST. July 2019. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2019/NIST.IR.7298r3.pdf

“PCMag Encyclopedia.” PCMag. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/index/a

Scott, Andrew. “2020 Top Cybersecurity Acronyms.” Medium. June 24, 2020. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://medium.com/ochrona/2020-top-cybersecurity-acronyms-88f2202abcf2

soulaklabs. “Bitoduc.fr: termes informatiques en français.” Accessed January 31, 2023. bitoduc.fr

“Threatsaurus: The A-Z of computer and data security threats.” SOPHOS in collaboration with the Center for Internet Security. 2013. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/other/sophosthreatsaurusaz.pdf

Internet-savvy Style Guides

Apple Style Guide. Apple, Inc. October 2022. Accessed March 3, 2023. https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/welcome/1.0/web

“BuzzFeed Style Guide.” BuzzFeed News. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/buzzfeed-style-guide-2022

“Google Developer Documentation Style Guide.” Google Developers. Updated January 20, 2023. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://developers.google.com/style/

Kopp, Rochelle and Steven Ganz. Valley Speak: Deciphering the Jargon of Silicon Valley. Genetius Publishing, 2016.

“MailChimp Content Style Guide.” MailChimp. Updated 2022. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://styleguide.mailchimp.com/

“Mother Jones’ Style Guide.” Mother Jones. Updated January 20, 2023. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/02/mother-jones-style-guide/

“The tidyverse style guide.” Tidyverse. Accessed January 31, 2023. http://style.tidyverse.org/index.html

Thomas, Hanna and Anna Hirsch. A Progressive’s Style Guide. Sum of Us. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.sumofus.org/images/SUMOFUS_PROGRESSIVE-STYLEGUIDE.pdf

“Wikipedia Manual of Style.” Updated January 30, 2023. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style

Yin, Karen. Conscious Style Guide. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://consciousstyleguide.com/

Writing Advice

“Accessibility evaluation for web writers.” 4 Syllables. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://4syllables.com.au/resources/accessibility-checklist

Bracey, Rhonda. CyberText Newsletter. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://cybertext.wordpress.com/

Browning, Laura and Caitlin PenzeyMoog. “There are two e’s in ’Wookiee,’ damn it: A message from the A.V. Club copy desk.” The A/V Club. Updated December 18, 2015. Accessed January 31, 2023. http://news.avclub.com/there-are-two-e-s-in-wookiee-damn-it-a-message-from-1798287457

Casagrande, June. It Was The Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2010.

Clark, Roy Peter. Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. New York: Little, Brown, 2013.

Hughes, Brianne. “Chaos in the Machine: Why Security Needs a Style Guide.” Presented at CactusCon, Phoenix, AZ. September 29, 2017. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://youtu.be/Yl-4BWKpC28

Johnson, Christopher. Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.

McCulloch, Gretchen. Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. Penguin, 2019.

Introductory Hacking Resources

Clark, Ben. RTFM: Red Team Field Manual. 1.0 ed. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.

Hak5. YouTube Channel. Accessed January 31, 2023. http://www.youtube.com/hak5

Hardikar, Aman. “Penetration Testing Practice Lab – Vulnerable Apps/Systems.” Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.amanhardikar.com/mindmaps/Practice.html

LiveOverflow. YouTube Channel. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/LiveOverflow

OWASP Cheat Sheet Series. Project. Accessed February 24, 2023. https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/

Paar, Cristof. “Introduction to Cryptography Lecture Series.” YouTube Channel. 2010. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1usFRN4LCMcfIV7UjHNuQg/videos

Stuttard, Dafydd and Marcus Pinto. The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Sullivan, Bryan and Vincent Liu. Web Application Security, A Beginner’s Guide. McGraw Hill, 2011.

Yaworski, Peter. Web Hacking 101: How to Make Money Hacking Ethically. https://leanpub.com/web-hacking-101

Additional Resources

“Blog.” Bishop Fox. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.bishopfox.com/blog/

Bryan, Jenny. “How to name files.” 2015. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://speakerdeck.com/jennybc/how-to-name-files

“CVE List Home.” Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://cve.mitre.org/cve/

Dark Reading. Accessed January 31, 2023. http://www.darkreading.com/

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://www.eff.org/

“List of computer security certifications.” Wikipedia. Updated January 31, 2023. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_security_certifications

Our Influences

Aside from the foundational references that we actively use on a day-to-day basis, we want to highlight several reference works and documents that helped to shape this guide’s existence. While these resources may no longer be the most current, they have provided us with valuable insight into cybersecurity history and the origins of style guidance in our fast-moving technological world.

Goldstein, Emmanuel. The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey. Indianapolis: Wiley, 2008.

Hale, Constance and Jessie Scanlon. Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. New York: Broadway, 1997.

“The Jargon File.” Version 4.4.7. December 2003. Accessed January 31, 2023. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/

“RFC 9494 – Internet Security Glossary, Version 2.” The IETF Trust. August 2007. Accessed January 31, 2023. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4949

Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World. Edited by Chris Barr and the senior editors of Yahoo!. New York: St Martin’s Griffin, 2010.