Results for "data tagging"

Data management & governance

CDO Council and CISO Council Joint Guide on Federal Zero Trust Data Security

In May 2025, the CDO Council and the CISO Council released the latest Federal Zero Trust (ZT) Data Security Guide, a first-of-its-kind document and key deliverable of OMB M-22-09, moving the U.S. Government Towards Zero Trust Cybersecurity Principles. M-22-09 charged the Federal CDO Council and Federal CISO Council to convene a cross-agency working group of data and security experts to develop a data security guide for Federal agencies. More than 30 Federal agencies and departments answered the call to author this guide to assist practitioners in operationalizing data security using a ZT framework.

Source

Federal Chief Data Officer's Council

Keywords

data governance, data management, data security, data tagging, federal data strategy, zero trust

Format

PDF (70 pages)

See all resources in Data management & governance >

Glossary

This section contains explanations of common terms referenced on resources.data.gov.

Search for a term:

Quality API documentation is the gateway to a successful API. API documentation needs to be complete, yet simple–a very difficult balance to achieve. This balance takes work and will take the work of more than one individual on an API development team to make happen. API documentation can be written by developers of the API, but additional edits should be made by developers who were not responsible for deploying the API. As a developer, it’s easy to overlook parameters and other details that developers have made assumptions about.
(Source)
Basic Auth is a way for a web browser or application to provide credentials in the form of a username and password. Because Basic Auth is integrated into HTTP protocol it is the easiest way for users to authenticate with a RESTful API. Basic Auth is easily integrated, however if SSL is not used, the username and password are passed in plain text and can be easily intercepted on the open Internet.
(Source)
A comma separated values (CSV) file is a computer data file used for implementing the tried and true organizational tool, the Comma Separated List. The CSV file is used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists form. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, and each field belongs to one table column. CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs (like moving between a database program and a spreadsheet program)
(Source)
A collection of data elements or datasets that make sense to group together. Each community of interest identifies the Data Assets specific to supporting the needs of their respective mission or business functions. Notably, a Data Asset is a deliberately abstract concept. A given Data Asset may represent an entire database consisting of multiple distinct entity classes, or may represent a single entity class.
(Source)
Data is defined as a value or set of values representing a specific concept or concepts. Data become 'information' when analyzed and possibly combined with other data in order to extract meaning, and to provide context. The meaning of data can vary depending on its context. 'Data' includes, but is not limited to, 1) geospatial data 2) unstructured data, 3) structured data, etc. Information, as defined in OMB Circular A-130, means any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts, data, or opinions in any medium or form, including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative, or audiovisual forms.
(Source)
A dataset is an organized collection of data. The most basic representation of a dataset is data elements presented in tabular form. Each column represents a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given value of that column’s variable. A dataset may also present information in a variety of non-tabular formats, such as an extensible mark-up language (XML) file, a geospatial data file, or an image file, etc.
(Source)
Errors are an inevitable part of API integration, and providing not only a robust set of clear and meaningful API error response codes, but a clear listing of these codes for developers to follow and learn from is essential. API errors are directly related to frustration during developer integration, the more friendlier and meaningful they are, the greater the chance a developer will move forward after encountering an error. Put a lot of consideration into your error responses and the documentation that educates developers.
(Source)
An event in which computer programmers and others in the field of software development, like graphic designers, interface designers, project managers and computational philologists, collaborate intensively on software projects. Occasionally, there is a hardware component as well. Hackathons typically last between a day and a week in length. Some hackathons are intended simply for educational or social purposes, although in many cases the goal is to create usable software. Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, the subject, or the demographic group of the programmers. In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created.
(Source)
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.
(Source)
To facilitate common understanding, a number of characteristics, or attributes, of data are defined. These characteristics of data are known as “metadata”, that is, “data that describes data.” For any particular datum, the metadata may describe how the datum is represented, ranges of acceptable values, its relationship to other data, and how it should be labeled. Metadata also may provide other relevant information, such as the responsible steward, associated laws and regulations, and access management policy. Each of the types of data described above has a corresponding set of metadata. Two of the many metadata standards are the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and Department of Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS). The metadata for structured data objects describes the structure, data elements, interrelationships, and other characteristics of information, including its creation, disposition, access and handling controls, formats, content, and context, as well as related audit trails. Metadata includes data element names (such as Organization Name, Address, etc.), their definition, and their format (numeric, date, text, etc.). In contrast, data is the actual data values such as the “US Patent and Trade Office” or the “Social Security Administration” for the metadata called “Organization Name”. Metadata may include metrics about an organization’s data including its data quality (accuracy, completeness, etc.).
(Source)
Computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-source license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software. Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open source software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open content movements.
(Source)
A special kind of variable, used in a subroutine to refer to one of the pieces of data provided as input to the subroutine. The semantics for how parameters can be declared and how the arguments get passed to the parameters of subroutines are defined by the language, but the details of how this is represented in any particular computer system depend on the calling conventions of that system.
(Source)
Resource Description Framework - A family of specifications for a metadata model. The RDF family of specifications is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The RDF metadata model is based upon the idea of making statements about resources in the form of a subject-predicate-object expression…and is a major component in what is proposed by the W3C’s Semantic Web activity: an evolutionary stage of the World Wide Web in which automated software can store, exchange, and utilize metadata about the vast resources of the Web, in turn enabling users to deal with those resources with greater efficiency and certainty. RDF’s simple data model and ability to model disparate, abstract concepts has also led to its increasing use in knowledge management applications unrelated to Semantic Web activity.
(Source)
A style of software architecture for distributed systems such as the World Wide Web. REST has emerged as a predominant Web service design model. REST facilitates the transaction between web servers by allowing loose coupling between different services. REST is less strongly typed than its counterpart, SOAP. The REST language is based on the use of nouns and verbs, and has an emphasis on readability. Unlike SOAP, REST does not require XML parsing and does not require a message header to and from a service provider. This ultimately uses less bandwidth.
(Source)
An XML schema defines the structure of an XML document. An XML schema defines things such as which data elements and attributes can appear in a document; how the data elements relate to one another; whether an element is empty or can include text; which types of data are allowed for specific data elements and attributes; and what the default and fixed values are for elements and attributes. A schema is also a description of the data represented within a database. The format of the description varies but includes a table layout for a relational database or an entity-relationship diagram. It is method for specifying constraints on XML documents.
(Source)
Software Development Kits (SDK) are the next step in providing code for developers, after basic code samples. SDKs are more complete code libraries that usually include authentication and production ready objects, that developers can use after they are more familiar with an API and are ready for integration. Just like with code samples, SDKs should be provided in as many common programming languages as possible. Code samples will help developers understand an API, while SDKs will actually facilitate their integration of an API into their application. When providing SDKs, consider a software licensing that gives your developers as much flexibility as possible in their commercial products.
(Source)
Expresses a software architectural concept that defines the use of services to support the requirements of software users. In a SOA environment, nodes on a network make resources available to other participants in the network as independent services that the participants access in a standardized way. Most definitions of SOA identify the use of Web services (using SOAP and WSDL) in its implementation. However, one can implement SOA using any service-based technology with loose coupling among interacting software agents.
(Source)
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a message-based protocol based on XML for accessing services on the Web. It employs XML syntax to send text commands across the Internet using HTTP. SOAP is similar in purpose to the DCOM and CORBA distributed object systems, but is more lightweight and less programming-intensive. Because of its simple exchange mechanism, SOAP can also be used to implement a messaging system.
(Source)
Data that is more free-form, such as multimedia files, images, sound files, or unstructured text. Unstructured data does not necessarily follow any format or hierarchical sequence, nor does it follow any relational rules. Unstructured data refers to masses of (usually) computerized information which do not have a data structure which is easily readable by a machine. Examples of unstructured data may include audio, video and unstructured text such as the body of an email or word processor document. Data mining techniques are used to find patterns in, or otherwise interpret, this information. Merrill Lynch estimates that more than 85 percent of all business information exists as unstructured data – commonly appearing in e-mails, memos, notes from call centers and support operations, news, user groups, chats, reports, letters, surveys, white papers, marketing material, research, presentations, and Web pages (“The Problem with Unstructured Data.”)
(Source)
A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.
(Source)