CITO study materials
CITO study resources

CITO key terms

CITO · Get comfortable with the vocabulary.

Shift handover

An accountable transfer of actual service context, state, ownership and pending actions, not merely a tally of completed tickets.

Workaround

An action restoring or reducing immediate service impact under authorization, without necessarily removing the underlying cause or temporary dependency.

Condition-based maintenance

An approach using relevant actual equipment-state evidence to inform supported maintenance decisions, alongside qualified requirements and manufacturer instructions.

Hazardous-energy boundary

The actual sources and stored/alternate energy relevant to qualified safe-work planning, which software-off status does not automatically isolate.

Emergency control scope

The site-specific equipment and logic affected by a designed emergency control, requiring qualified training rather than an assumed all-source shutdown guarantee.

Method of procedure

A locally approved plan for particular consequential work with relevant prerequisites, roles, sequence, verification and recovery, not a universal copied template.

Stranded capacity

A resource that cannot be used for the intended service because another actual local constraint or dependency prevents its deployment.

Measurement boundary

The defined equipment, energy/power scope and time interval used in a capacity or efficiency measure, necessary for meaningful comparison.

Shared failure dependency

A common resource or condition that can affect multiple nominally redundant paths, requiring scenario analysis rather than a component count.

Risk ownership

Accountable authority for relevant risk review and acceptance under actual criteria, distinct from an operator privately ignoring an inconvenient condition.

Risk Assessment

The process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks to determine their potential impact and likelihood, often used to prioritize security controls.

Related: Risk Management, Security Audit
Risk Management

The coordinated activities to direct and control an organization regarding risk, including risk assessment, treatment, acceptance, and communication.

Related: Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan
Security Audit

A systematic examination of an organization's security controls, policies, and procedures to verify compliance with standards and identify areas for improvement.

Related: Risk Assessment, Compliance
Risk

The effect of uncertainty on objectives, usually described by the likelihood of an event and its potential impact.

Related: Inherent risk, Residual risk, Risk assessment
Inherent risk

The level of risk that exists before any controls or risk responses are applied to a process, asset, or activity.

Related: Residual risk, Control, Risk assessment
Residual risk

The risk remaining after controls and risk responses have been implemented and their effectiveness has been considered.

Related: Inherent risk, Control testing, Risk acceptance
Risk analysis

The part of risk assessment that examines the nature, causes, likelihood, and impact of identified risks. It may use qualitative or quantitative methods.

Related: Risk assessment, Likelihood, Impact
Risk evaluation

The part of risk assessment that compares analysis results with risk criteria to decide whether risk is acceptable.

Related: Risk assessment, Risk appetite, Risk tolerance
Risk register

A structured record of identified risks, including owners, ratings, controls, responses, and status, used to monitor and manage risk.

Related: Risk owner, Risk response, Risk reporting
Threat

A potential cause of an unwanted incident that could harm an asset or organization, such as an attacker, malware, or natural event.

Related: Vulnerability, Likelihood, Impact
Vulnerability

A weakness in a process, system, or control that could be exploited by a threat to cause harm.

Related: Threat, Vulnerability management, Control
Likelihood

The probability that a threat event will occur and exploit a vulnerability, expressed qualitatively or quantitatively. It is one factor used to rate risk.

Related: Impact, Risk analysis, Threat
Impact

The consequence or magnitude of loss or harm to the organization if a risk event occurs. It may be financial, operational, legal, or reputational.

Related: Likelihood, Business impact analysis, Risk analysis
Control

A safeguard, policy, procedure, or technical measure that reduces the likelihood or impact of a risk event.

Related: Control testing, Inherent risk, Residual risk
Least Privilege

The principle that users and systems should be granted only the minimum access rights necessary to perform their tasks, reducing the potential damage from accidents or malicious activity.

Related: Role-Based Access Control, Separation of Duties
Separation of Duties

A control that divides critical tasks among different individuals so that no single person can complete a sensitive action alone, helping to prevent fraud and errors.

Related: Least Privilege, Role-Based Access Control
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

An access control model where permissions are assigned to roles rather than individual users, and users are assigned to roles based on their job responsibilities.

Related: Least Privilege, Separation of Duties
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

An authentication method that requires two or more independent credentials from different categories (something you know, have, or are) to verify a user's identity.

Related: Authentication, Single Sign-On
Authentication

The process of verifying the identity of a user, device, or system, typically through credentials such as passwords, tokens, or biometrics.

Related: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Authorization
Authorization

The process of determining what actions or resources an authenticated entity is permitted to access, often enforced through access control policies.

Related: Authentication, Least Privilege