K

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Key

In a communications network, the term "key" usually refers to a sequence of random or pseudo-random bits used to direct cryptographic operations and/or for producing other keys. The same plaintext encrypted with different keys yields different cipher texts, each of which requires a different key for decryption

Key Hashing

Hashing is the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string. Thus key hashing refers to the method in which a long key is converted to a native key for use in the encryption/decryption process. Each number or letter of the long key helps to create each digital bit of the native key.

Killer App

A term that is commonly used to refer to a specific application that practically compels the general populace to embrace its related technology.

Kbps (KiloBits Per Second)

A term that refers to one thousand bits per second; as such Kbps is a standard measure of data rate and transmission capacity. Also referred to as kbits/s. Note that KBps refers to kilobytes by second—one thousand bytes per second— and is a measurement for physical data storage on some form of storage device: hard disk, RAM, etc.

Kilohertz (kHz)

A term that refers to one thousand cycles per second; as such kHz is a common unit used in measurement of signal bandwidth—digital and analog.

See also Hertz (Hz).

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