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P

1. Paper Based Batteries
   A paper battery is an electric battery engineered to use a spacer formed largely of cellulose (the major constituent of paper). Paper-based batteries incorporate nanoscale structures to act as high surface-area electrodes to improve conductivity.

   Paper based batteries incorporates nanoscale structures to act as high surface-area electrodes to improve conductivitiy. In addition to being unusually thin, paper batteries are flexible and environmentally-friendly, allowing integration into a wide range of products. Their functioning is similar to conventional chemical batteries with the important difference that they are non-corrosive and do not require extensive housing.
2. Passive Sensor
   A passive sensor is a device that detects and responds to some input from the physical environment. Passive sensor technologies gather target data through the detection of vibrations, light, radiation, heat, or other phenomena occurring in the subject’s environment.

   Passive sensor technologies gather target data through the detection of vibrations, light, radiation, heat or other phenomena occurring in the subject’s environment. They contrast with active sensors, which include transmitters that send out a signal, a light wavelength or electrons to be bounced off the target, with data gathered by the sensor upon their reflection. Both active and passive sensing technologies are often used to make observations and measurements from a distance or on a scale beyond those observable to the naked eye. Sensors can also be used in harsh environments and places inaccessible to people. Examples of passive sensor-based technologies include: Photographic, thermal, electric field sensing, chemical, infrared and seismic. However, as can be the case with some sensors, seismic and infrared light sensors exist in both active and passive forms. Depending on what is being sensed these various sensors might be mounted to a satellite, airplane, boat, submarine UAV drone, or from another convenient point of observation such as a building top. The data gathered by remote sensing is used for everything from cartography to resource exploration to atmospheric and chemical measurements. Remote sensing is also one of the basic enabling technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), in which almost any imaginable entity can be equipped with a unique identifier and the ability to transfer data over a network autonomously. Both types of sensors have benefits and drawbacks. Passive sensor technologies can't be detected by observed parties as they only sense what is in the environment rather than relying on a transmitter whose activity might be detected with equipment. Active sensors, however, can sometimes be used when passive sources of observations by sensor are impossible. This could be, for example, when the ambient observed phenomena are not available to a CCD camera during the night. Active sensor technologies like LiDAR or radar can still be used independent of daylight to make maps or track movement as they have their own radiations on which to base their observations.
3. Patch Management
   Patch management is an area of systems management that involves acquiring, testing, and installing multiple patches (code changes) to an administered computer system.

   Patch management tasks include: maintaining current knowledge of available patches, deciding what patches are appropriate for particular systems, ensuring that patches are installed properly, testing systems after installation, and documenting all associated procedures, such as specific configurations required. A number of products are available to automate patch management tasks, including RingMaster's Automated Patch Management, PatchLink Update, and Gibraltar's Everguard.
4. Penetration Testing
   Penetration testing (also called pen testing) is the practice of testing a computer system, network, or Web application to find vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.

   Also called pentests, this is part of a full security audit and typically exploits a combination of weaknesses to gain access and then evaluates the capability of the network’s defenders to detect and respond to the penetration.
5. Personal Area Network (PAN)
   A computer network used for data transmission among digital devices. Interconnected devices are operating in the range of a single person, typically 10 meters. PANS are mostly or exclusively wireless, making the term basically indistinguishable from Wireless PANs (WPAN).

   Interconnected devices operating in the range of a single person, typically 10 meters. PANS are mostly or exclusively wireless, making the term basically indistinguishable from Wireless PANs (WPAN). WPAN is based on the IEEE 802.15 standard and does not necessarily require an uplink to the Internet. The PAN concept was first developed by Thomas Zimmerman and others at the M.I.T. Media Lab.
6. Personal Protection Drone (PPD)
   A type of drone, or drone swarm, dedicated to an individual’s security. PPDs are non-lethal and may be primarily used to record an encounter or raise an alarm.

   PPDs are non-lethal and may be primarily used to record an encounter or raise an alarm. A use case for a swarm of PPDs may be to hinder the approach of an assailant long enough to facilitate the protected person’s withdrawal.
7. Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
   Personally identifiable information (PII), or Sensitive Personal Information (SPI), as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.

   Personally identifiable information (PII), or Sensitive Personal Information (SPI), as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the US context, but the phrase it abbreviates has four common variants based on personal / personally, and identifiable / identifying. Not all are equivalent, and for legal purposes the effective definitions vary depending on the jurisdiction and the purposes for which the term is being used. (In other countries with privacy protection laws derived from the OECD privacy principles, the term used is more often "personal information", which may be somewhat broader: in Australia's Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) "personal information" also includes information from which the person's identity is "reasonably ascertainable", potentially covering some information not covered by PII.) NIST Special Publication 800-122 defines PII as "any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual‘s identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother‘s maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information." So, for example, a user's IP address as used in a communication exchange is classed as PII regardless of whether it may or may not on its own be able to uniquely identify a person. Although the concept of PII is old, it has become much more important as information technology and the Internet have made it easier to collect PII through breaches of Internet security, network security and web browser security, leading to a profitable market in collecting and reselling PII. PII can also be exploited by criminals to stalk or steal the identity of a person, or to aid in the planning of criminal acts. As a response to these threats, many website privacy policies specifically address the gathering of PII, and lawmakers have enacted a series of legislations to limit the distribution and accessibility of PII. However, PII is a legal concept, not a technical concept. Because of the versatility and power of modern re-identification algorithms, the absence of PII data does not mean that the remaining data does not identify individuals. While some attributes may be uniquely identifying on their own, any attribute can be identifying in combination with others. These attributes have been referred to as quasi-identifiers or pseudo-identifiers.
8. Pervasive Computing
   Pervasive computing (also called ubiquitous computing) is the growing trend towards embedding microprocessors in everyday objects so they can communicate information. Pervasive computing devices are completely connected and constantly available.

   Pervasive computing (also called ubiquitous computing) is the growing trend towards embedding microprocessors in everyday objects so they can communicate information. The words pervasive and ubiquitous mean "existing everywhere." Pervasive computing devices are completely connected and constantly available. Pervasive computing relies on the convergence of wireless technologies, advanced electronics and the Internet. The goal of researchers working in pervasive computing is to create smart products that communicate unobtrusively. The products are connected to the Internet and the data they generate is easily available. Privacy advocates are concerned about the "big brother is watching you" aspects of pervasive computing, but from a practical standpoint, most researchers feel it will improve efficiency. In a 1996 speech, Rick Belluzo, who was then executive VP and general manager of Hewlett-Packard, compared pervasive computing to electricity. He described it as being "the stage when we take computing for granted. We only notice its absence, rather than its presence." An example of a practical application of pervasive computing is the replacement of old electric meters with smart meters. In the past, electric meters had to be manually read by a company representative. Smart meters report usage in real-time over the Internet. They will also notify the power company when there is an outage, reset thermostats according to the homeowner's directives, send messages to display units in the home and regulate the water heater.
9. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
   Platform as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage web applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.

   PaaS can be delivered in two ways: as a public cloud service from a provider, where the consumer controls software deployment and configuration settings, and the provider provides the networks, servers, storage and other services to host the consumer's application; or as software installed in private data centers or public infrastructure as a service and managed by internal IT departments.
10. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
    Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a protocol that allows corporations to extend their own corporate network through private "tunnels" over the public Internet.

    Effectively, a corporation uses a wide-area network as a single large local area network. A company no longer needs to lease its own lines for wide-area communication but can securely use the public networks. This kind of interconnection is known as a virtual private network (VPN). PPTP, a proposed standard sponsored by Microsoft and other companies, and Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol, proposed by Cisco Systems, are among the most likely proposals as the basis for a new Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard. With PPTP, which is an extension of the Internet's Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), any user of a PC with PPP client support is able to use an independent service provider (ISP) to connect securely to a server elsewhere in the user's company.
11. Power over Ethernet (PoE)
    Power over Ethernet (PoE) describes any of several standardized or ad-hoc systems that pass electrical power along with data on Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both data connection and electrical power to devices such as wireless access points or IP cameras.

    Power over Ethernet or PoE describes any of several standardized or ad-hoc systems which pass electrical power along with data on Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both data connection and electrical power to devices such as wireless access points or IP cameras. Unlike standards such as Universal Serial Bus which also power devices over the data cables, PoE allows long cable lengths. Power may be carried on the same conductors as the data, or it may be carried on dedicated conductors in the same cable. There are several common techniques for transmitting power over Ethernet cabling. Two of them have been standardized by IEEE 802.3. Since only two of the four pairs are needed for 10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX, power may be transmitted on the unused conductors of a cable. In the IEEE standards, this is referred to as Alternative B. Power may also be transmitted on the data conductors by applying a common-mode voltage to each pair. Because twisted-pair Ethernet uses differential signalling, this does not interfere with data transmission. The common mode voltage is easily extracted using the center tap of the standard Ethernet pulse transformer. This is similar to the phantom power technique commonly used for powering audio microphones. In the IEEE standards, this is referred to as Alternative A. In addition to standardizing existing practice for spare-pair and common-mode data pair power transmission, the IEEE PoE standards provide for signalling between the power sourcing equipment (PSE) and powered device (PD). This signaling allows the presence of a conformant device to be detected by the power source, and allows the device and source to negotiate the amount of power required or available. Up to 25.5 watts is available for a device.
12. Power over WiFi (PoWiFi)
    A technology that can convert the signals sent by wireless routers into DC (direct current). WiFi hotspots and routers are programmed under PoWiFi to broadcast noise when a channel is not being used to send data, thus providing a continuous stream of low-power signals that can be harvested.

    WiFi hotspots and routers are programmed under PoWiFi to broadcast noise when a channel is not being used to send data, thus providing a continuous stream of low-power signals that can be harvested. WiFi generally transmits up to 1 watt of power to carry data.
13. Pre-Boot Authentication (PBA)
    Pre-Boot Authentication (PBA) or Power-On Authentication (POA) serves as an extension of the BIOS or boot firmware and guarantees a secure, tamper-proof environment external to the operating system as a trusted authentication layer.

    The PBA prevents anything being read from the hard disk such as the operating system until the user has confirmed he/she has the correct password or other credentials. Pre-Boot Authentication is generally provided by a variety of full disk encryption vendors, but can be installed separately. Some FDE (Full Disk Encryption) solutions can function without Pre-Boot Authentication, such as hardware-based full disk encryption. However, without some form of authentication, encryption provides little protection.
14. Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)
    A Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) -enabled device can be shut down or restarted via a network connection, allowing for power-hungry devices to be managed remotely. It is the ability to manage power over a network connection

    The Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is an industry standard client/server interface that allows networked computers that are not yet loaded with an operating system to be configured and booted remotely by an administrator. The PXE code is typically delivered with a new computer on a read-only memory chip or boot disk that allows the computer (a client) to communicate with the network server so that the client machine can be remotely configured and its operating system can be remotely booted. PXE provides three things: 1) The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), which allows the client to receive an IP address to gain access to the network servers. 2) A set of application program interfaces (API) that are used by the client's Basic Input/Output Operating System (BIOS) or a downloaded Network Bootstrap Program (NBP) that automates the booting of the operating system and other configuration steps. 3) A standard method of initializing the PXE code in the PXE ROM chip or boot disk. The PXE process consists of the client notifying the server that it uses PXE. If the server uses PXE, it sends the client a list of boot servers that contain the operating systems available. The client finds the boot server it needs and receives the name of the file to download. The client then downloads the file using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (Trivia File Transfer Protocol) and executes it, which loads the operating system. If a client is equipped with PXE and the server is not, the server ignores the PXE code preventing disruption in the DHCP and Bootstrap Protocol (BP) operations.
15. Predictive Maintenance
    Predictive maintenance is a technique to predict the future failure point of a machine component, so that the component can be replaced, based on a plan, just before it fails. Thus, equipment downtime is minimized, and the component lifetime is maximized.

    On the basis of real-time data, all relevant parameters of the machines involved in the manufacturing process are acquired and evaluated for anomalies by means of stream analytics. In a subsequent machine learning process, specific fault patterns and the causes of a problem are detected in good time. This results in fewer rejects and maximum availability over the entire life cycle of the production line. The requirements on machine operating times vary depending on the specific branch of industry and its product cycles. While this could be up to 30 years in the aerospace sector, it is a matter of just a few months in the case of fast-moving goods, such as smartphones. With the aim of enabling an accurate assessment of the future performance of the machine or one of its components, intelligent predictive maintenance systems interconnect the largest possible amount of data from decentralized sources for the purpose of analysis.
16. Pressure Sensor
    A pressure sensor measures pressure, typically of gases or liquids. The pressure is an expression of the force required to stop a fluid from expanding and is usually stated in terms of force per unit area. A pressure sensor usually acts as a transducer.

    A pressure sensor measures pressure, typically of gases or liquids. Pressure is an expression of the force required to stop a fluid from expanding, and is usually stated in terms of force per unit area. A pressure sensor usually acts as a transducer; it generates a signal as a function of the pressure imposed. For the purposes of this article, such a signal is electrical.
17. Preventive Maintenance
    Preventive maintenance is regularly performed on a piece of equipment to reduce the likelihood of failure. Preventive maintenance ensures that anything of value to your organization receives consistent maintenance to avoid unexpected breakdowns and costly disruptions.
18. Privacy by Design
    Privacy by Design is an approach to systems engineering, which takes privacy into account throughout the whole engineering process. The concept is an example of a value-sensitive design.

    The concept is an example of value sensitive design, i.e., to take human values into account in a well-defined matter throughout the whole process and may have been derived from this. The concept originates in a joint report on “Privacy-enhancing technologies” by a joint team of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, the Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in 1995.
19. Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
    A privacy impact assessment (PIA) is a tool for identifying and assessing privacy risks throughout the development life cycle of a program or system. A PIA should identify: Whether the information being collected complies with privacy-related legal and regulatory compliance requirements.

    A privacy impact assessment states what personally identifiable information (PII) is collected and explains how that information is maintained, how it will be protected and how it will be shared. A PIA should identify: Whether the information being collected complies with privacy-related legal and regulatory compliance requirements. The risks and effects of collecting, maintaining and disseminating PII. Protections and processes for handling information to alleviate any potential privacy risks. Options and methods for individuals to provide consent for the collection of their PII. Under the E-Government Act of 2002, federal agencies are required to conduct privacy impact assessments for government programs and systems that collect personal information online. Federal agency CIOs, or an equivalent official as determined by the head of the agency, are responsible for ensuring that the privacy impact assessments are conducted and reviewed for applicable IT systems. The Act also mandates a privacy impact assessment be conducted when an IT system is substantially revised. Federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services offer guidance for writing PIAs, such as providing blank privacy impact assessment templates to assist and facilitate their development.
20. Private Cloud
    A private cloud provides services with cloud characteristics but only within a single organization, for example, one company. As a result, the private cloud is best for businesses with dynamic or unpredictable computing needs that require direct control over their environments.

    Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers similar advantages to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture. Unlike public clouds, which deliver services to multiple organizations, a private cloud is dedicated to a single organization. As a result, private cloud is best for businesses with dynamic or unpredictable computing needs that require direct control over their environments. Public and private cloud deployment models differ. Public clouds, such as those from Amazon Web Services or Google Compute Engine, share a computing infrastructure across different users, business units or businesses. However, these shared computing environments aren't suitable for all businesses, such as those with mission-critical workloads, security concerns, uptime requirements or management demands. Instead, these businesses can provision a portion of their existing data center as an on-premises -- or private -- cloud. A private cloud provides the same basic benefits of public cloud. These include self-service and scalability; multi-tenancy; the ability to provision machines; changing computing resources on-demand; and creating multiple machines for complex computing jobs, such as big data. Chargeback tools track computing usage, and business units pay only for the resources they use. In addition, private cloud offers hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall, so it minimizes the security concerns some organizations have around cloud. Private cloud also gives companies direct control over their data. But private clouds have some disadvantages. For example, on-premises IT -- rather than a third-party cloud provider -- is responsible for managing the private cloud. As a result, private cloud deployments carry the same staffing, management, maintenance and capital expenses as traditional data center ownership. Additional private cloud expenses include virtualization, cloud software and cloud management tools. However, to reduce an organization's on-premises IT footprint, cloud providers, such as Rackspace and VMware, can deploy private cloud infrastructures. A business can also use a mix of a private and public cloud services with hybrid cloud deployment. This allows users to scale computing requirements beyond the private cloud and into the public cloud -- a capability called cloud bursting.
21. Private Key
    The private key is paired with a public key to set off algorithms for transaction encryption and decryption. It is created as part of public-key cryptography during asymmetric-key encryption and used to decrypt and transform a message into a readable format.

    A private key is a sophisticated form of cryptography that allows a user to access their cryptocurrency. A private key is an integral aspect of bitcoin and altcoins, and its security make-up helps to protect a user from unauthorized access to funds (unless they have access to the private key).
22. Process Field Bus (PROFIBUS)
    Process Field Bus (PROFIBUS) is a standard for fieldbus communication in automation technology and was first promoted in 1989 by BMBF (German department of education and research) and then used by Siemens.
23. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
    A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a digital computer used for automation of typically industrial electromechanical processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines, amusement rides, or light fixtures.

    PLCs are used in many machines, in varies industries. They are designed for multiple arrangements of digital and analog inputs and outputs, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise, and resistance to vibration and impact. Programs to control machine operation are typically stored in battery-backed-up ornon-volatile memory. A PLC is an example of a "hard" real-time system since output results must be produced in response to input conditions within a limited time, otherwise unintended operation will result.
24. Proof of Stake (PoS)
    A consensus distribution algorithm that rewards earnings based on the number of coins you hold. This consensus algorithm is used to secure the network and confirm transactions, just like proof of work.

    This consensus algorithm is used to secure the network and confirm transactions, just like proof of work. However, the main advantage of POS is energy consumption is reduced dramatically compared to POW.
25. Proof of Work (PoW)
    A consensus distribution algorithm that requires computational power in the form of mining data blocks. This measure is used to deter denial of service attacks and other service abuses.

    This measure is used to deter denial of service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from the service requester, usually processing time by a computer.
26. Proxy Server
    In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers.

    A proxy server is a dedicated computer or a software system running on a computer that acts as an intermediary between an endpoint device, such as a computer, and another server from which a user or client is requesting a service. The proxy server may exist in the same machine as a firewall server or it may be on a separate server, which forwards requests through the firewall. An advantage of a proxy server is that its cache can serve all users. If one or more Internet sites are frequently requested, these are likely to be in the proxy's cache, which will improve user response time. A proxy can also log its interactions, which can be helpful for troubleshooting. Here’s a simple example of how proxy servers work: When a proxy server receives a request for an Internet resource (such as a Web page), it looks in its local cache of previously pages. If it finds the page, it returns it to the user without needing to forward the request to the Internet. If the page is not in the cache, the proxy server, acting as a client on behalf of the user, uses one of its own IP addresses to request the page from the server out on the Internet. When the page is returned, the proxy server relates it to the original request and forwards it on to the user. Proxy servers are used for both legal and illegal purposes. In the enterprise, a proxy server is used to facilitate security, administrative control or caching services, among other purposes. In a personal computing context, proxy servers are used to enable user privacy and anonymous surfing. Proxy servers can also be used for the opposite purpose: To monitor traffic and undermine user privacy. To the user, the proxy server is invisible; all Internet requests and returned responses appear to be directly with the addressed Internet server. (The proxy is not actually invisible; its IP address has to be specified as a configuration option to the browser or other protocol program.)
27. Public Address
    Public Address is a string of alphanumeric characters that are uniquely tied to a specific private address. Similar to an email address to send/receive emails, the public address is used to send/receive cryptocurrencies.

    This is very similar to an email address except instead of using it to send/receive emails, it is used to send/receive crypto currencies. The name public comes from the fact that these addresses appear on the block explorer when searched, and the sender needs to know the public address of the receiver to send crypto currencies to their wallet.
28. Public Cloud
    The public cloud is defined as computing services offered by third-party providers over the public Internet. Resources vary by provider but may include storage capabilities, applications or virtual machines.

    The main benefits of using a public cloud service are: Easy and inexpensive set-up because hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the provider. Scalability to meet needs. No wasted resources because you pay for what you use. The term "public cloud" arose to differentiate between the standard model and the private cloud, which is a proprietary network or data center that uses cloud computing technologies, such as virtualization. A private cloud is managed by the organization it serves. A third model, the hybrid cloud, is maintained by both internal and external providers. Examples of public clouds include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM's Blue Cloud, Sun Cloud, Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform.
29. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
    A public key infrastructure (PKI) supports the distribution and identification of public encryption keys, enabling users and computers to both securely exchange data over networks such as the Internet and verify the identity of the other party.

    The purpose of a PKI is to facilitate the secure electronic transfer of information for a range of network activities such as e-commerce, internet banking and confidential email. It is required for activities where simple passwords are an inadequate authentication method and more rigorous proof is required to confirm the identity of the parties involved in the communication and to validate the information being transferred. Without PKI, sensitive information can still be encrypted (ensuring confidentiality) and exchanged, but there would be no assurance of the identity (authentication) of the other party. Any form of sensitive data exchanged over the Internet is reliant on PKI for security.
30. Public Sector Information (PSI)
    Public sector information (PSI) is information produced by central and local government or any other public body. The purpose of a PKI is to facilitate the secure electronic transfer of information for a range of network activities such as e-commerce, internet banking and confidential email.

    Public sector information (PSI) is information produced by central and local government or any other public body. Any information (content) whatever its medium (form) - including print, digital or electronic, and sound recordings - produced, held or disseminated by a public sector body is considered public sector information. This includes an enormous range: corporate information such as reports and financial data, codes of practices, public records, statistics, still and moving images, press releases, artefacts, publication schemes, and so on.