CSF Glossary

Source of Reference: official Cybersecurity Framework Components from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

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Term	Description
Buyer	The people or organizations that consume a given product or service.

Term	Description
Category	The subdivision of a Function into groups of cybersecurity outcomes, closely tied to programmatic needs and particular activities. Examples of Categories include “Asset Management,” “Identity Management and Access Control,” and “Detection Processes.”
Critical Infrastructure	Systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on cybersecurity, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.
Cybersecurity	The process of protecting information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.
Cybersecurity Event	A cybersecurity change that may have an impact on organizational operations (including mission, capabilities, or reputation).
Cybersecurity Incident	A cybersecurity event that has been determined to have an impact on the organization prompting the need for response and recovery.

Term	Description
Detect (function)	Develop and implement the appropriate activities to identify the occurrence of a cybersecurity event.

Term	Description
Framework	A risk-based approach to reducing cybersecurity risk composed of three parts: the Framework Core, the Framework Profile, and the Framework Implementation Tiers. Also known as the “Cybersecurity Framework.”
Framework Core	A set of cybersecurity activities and references that are common across critical infrastructure sectors and are organized around particular outcomes. The Framework Core comprises four types of elements: Functions, Categories, Subcategories, and Informative References.
Framework Implementation Tier	A lens through which to view the characteristics of an organization’s approach to risk—how an organization views cybersecurity risk and the processes in place to manage that risk.
Framework Profile	A representation of the outcomes that a particular system or organization has selected from the Framework Categories and Subcategories.
Function	One of the main components of the Framework. Functions provide the highest level of structure for organizing basic cybersecurity activities into Categories and Subcategories. The five functions are Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.

Term	Description
Identify (function)	Develop the organizational understanding to manage cybersecurity risk to systems, assets, data, and capabilities.
Informative Reference	A specific section of standards, guidelines, and practices common among critical infrastructure sectors that illustrates a method to achieve the outcomes associated with each Subcategory. An example of an Informative Reference is ISO/IEC 27001 Control A.10.8.3, which supports the “Data-in-transit is protected” Subcategory of the “Data Security” Category in the “Protect” function.

Term	Description
Mobile Code	A program (e.g., script, macro, or other portable instruction) that can be shipped unchanged to a heterogeneous collection of platforms and executed with identical semantics.

Term	Description
Protect (function)	Develop and implement the appropriate safeguards to ensure delivery of critical infrastructure services.
Privileged User	A user that is authorized (and, therefore, trusted) to perform security�-relevant functions that ordinary users are not authorized to perform.

Term	Description
Recover (function)	Develop and implement the appropriate activities to maintain plans for resilience and to restore any capabilities or services that were impaired due to a cybersecurity event.
Respond (function)	Develop and implement the appropriate activities to take action regarding a detected cybersecurity event.
Risk	A measure of the extent to which an entity is threatened by a potential circumstance or event, and typically a function of: (i) the adverse impacts that would arise if the circumstance or event occurs; and (ii) the likelihood of occurrence.
Risk Management	The process of identifying, assessing, and responding to risk.

Term	Description
Subcategory	The subdivision of a Category into specific outcomes of technical and/or management activities. Examples of Subcategories include “External information systems are catalogued,” “Data-at-rest is protected,” and “Notifications from detection systems are investigated.”
Supplier	Product and service providers used for an organization’s internal purposes (e.g., IT infrastructure) or integrated into the products of services provided to that organization’s Buyers.

Term	Description
Taxonomy	A scheme of classification.