Security Acronym Decoder

A searchable glossary for the alphabet soup of cybersecurity terms.

What it is

Security Acronym Decoder is a static study tool for quickly translating common cybersecurity shorthand into plain-English definitions, context, and related terms. It helps learners move beyond memorizing jargon by making overlapping acronyms easier to search, compare, and revisit.

Features

• Big fuzzy-friendly search over acronym and expansion text
• Category filter chips for quick topic narrowing
• Result cards with definitions, context, and clickable related acronyms
• Deterministic acronym-of-the-day prompt when no search is active
• Local pinned study list plus keyboard shortcuts for search, navigation, pinning, and help

How to run locally

cd projects/security-acronym-decoder
python -m http.server 8080

Then open http://localhost:8080.

Push to GitHub

This project ships as its own standalone repo. To push it to a GitHub account (e.g., a separate cybersecurity-portfolio account), follow these steps.

1) Authenticate with the target account

Preferred: use GitHub CLI multi-account auth.

gh auth login
gh auth switch
gh auth status

Per-repo git config keeps commits under the right identity even if your global git config points at another account:

git config user.name "Matthew Faber"
git config user.email "<your-github-username>@users.noreply.github.com"

The noreply email keeps your personal email private. Replace <your-github-username> with the target account username.

2) Initialize, commit, and push

From the workspace root:

cd projects/security-acronym-decoder
git init -b main
git config user.name "Matthew Faber"
git config user.email "<your-github-username>@users.noreply.github.com"
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
gh repo create <your-github-username>/security-acronym-decoder --public --source=. --remote=origin --push --description "A searchable glossary for the alphabet soup of cybersecurity terms."

3) Enable GitHub Pages

• Go to repo Settings → Pages.
• Under Build and deployment, set Source to GitHub Actions (not Deploy from a branch).
• The first push triggers .github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml; wait about 30 seconds, then visit https://<your-github-username>.github.io/security-acronym-decoder/.

4) Updating later

git add . && git commit -m "Describe the change" && git push

Deploy your own

This repo includes .github/workflows/deploy-pages.yml for the modern GitHub-native Pages flow.

1. Push the repo to GitHub.
2. Open Settings → Pages and set Build and deployment → Source to GitHub Actions.
3. Push to main or run the workflow manually with workflow_dispatch.
4. After the workflow finishes, open https://<your-github-username>.github.io/security-acronym-decoder/.

Tech stack

• HTML5
• CSS3 with custom properties and prefers-color-scheme
• Vanilla JavaScript
• Static JSON data
• GitHub Pages

Project structure

.
├── data/
│   └── security-acronyms.json
├── src/
│   └── app.js
├── styles/
│   └── main.css
├── index.html
├── README.md
└── TESTING.md

Data notes

The glossary data is copied directly from projects/_content-drops/security-acronyms.json so the app stays reviewable and easy to update.

Manual testing

See TESTING.md for the checklist used for local browser review.

Author

Matthew Faber
Matthew Faber builds hands-on cybersecurity portfolio projects.