Reference

Abbreviations

An overview of the abbreviations and technical terms used on IACS Radar — from vulnerability management to OT protocols and IEC 62443.

Vulnerabilities & threat intelligence

CIAConfidentiality, Integrity, Availability: The three impact categories (confidentiality, integrity, availability) on which CVSS assesses the consequences of a vulnerability.
CISACybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: US government agency that publishes the KEV catalogue and ICS advisories used by IACS Radar.
CPECommon Platform Enumeration: Standardised naming for software and devices, used to link a CVE to a specific product.
CSAFCommon Security Advisory Framework: Machine-readable format for security advisories, used by CISA and vendors such as Siemens and ABB.
CVECommon Vulnerabilities and Exposures: Unique identification number for a publicly known vulnerability, for example CVE-2026-12345.
CVSSCommon Vulnerability Scoring System: Standard for expressing the severity of a vulnerability as a score from 0 to 10.
CWECommon Weakness Enumeration: Classification of the type of software weakness behind a vulnerability, for example a buffer overflow.
EPSSExploit Prediction Scoring System: Daily updated estimate (FIRST.org) of the likelihood that a vulnerability will actually be exploited within 30 days.
ICS-CERTIndustrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team: CISA unit that publishes advisories specifically for industrial control systems.
KEVKnown Exploited Vulnerabilities: CISA catalogue of vulnerabilities for which actual exploitation has been established.
NVDNational Vulnerability Database: US government database (NIST) with enriched CVE data such as CVSS scores and CWE classifications.
OWASPOpen Worldwide Application Security Project: Non-profit organisation behind widely used security standards, including the OWASP Top 10.
PSIRTProduct Security Incident Response Team: Team within a vendor (for example Siemens ProductCERT, ABB PSIRT) that handles and publishes vulnerabilities in its own products.

OT, ICS & industrial systems

DCSDistributed Control System: Process control system for large-scale, distributed industrial processes, widely used in power plants.
DMZDemilitarized Zone: Segmented network zone between the IT and OT network that prevents direct traffic between the two.
HMIHuman-Machine Interface: Operator interface used to monitor and operate a process.
IACSIndustrial Automation and Control Systems: Umbrella term for industrial automation and control systems — the scope of IEC 62443.
ICSIndustrial Control Systems: Industrial control systems that drive physical processes, such as SCADA, DCS and PLCs.
IEDIntelligent Electronic Device: Smart field device in a substation, for example a protection relay that measures and decides locally.
ITInformation Technology: Information technology — office automation, in an OT context often used as the counterpart of operational technology.
OTOperational Technology: Hardware and software that directly monitors or controls physical processes and equipment.
PLCProgrammable Logic Controller: Programmable industrial controller that drives field equipment based on sensor input.
RTURemote Terminal Unit: Field device that collects measurement and control signals and passes them on to a control centre, often via IEC 104 or DNP3.
SCADASupervisory Control and Data Acquisition: System for large-scale supervision and control of distributed industrial processes, for example an electricity grid.

Protocols

DNP3Distributed Network Protocol 3: Telecontrol protocol for SCADA connections, widely used in North America.
GOOSEGeneric Object Oriented Substation Event: Fast multicast message within IEC 61850, used for time-critical protection commands between IEDs.
HTTPSHypertext Transfer Protocol Secure: Encrypted variant of HTTP, used among other things for management interfaces of HMIs and gateways.
IEC 61850: International communication standard for substation automation, including MMS, GOOSE and Sampled Values.
MMSManufacturing Message Specification: Client-server communication protocol within IEC 61850, used within substations.
OPC UAOpen Platform Communications Unified Architecture: Platform-independent protocol for industrial data exchange, for example between a historian and an MES.
RDPRemote Desktop Protocol: Protocol for remote desktop management, often used (and abused) for access to engineering workstations.
SNMPSimple Network Management Protocol: Protocol for monitoring and managing network equipment such as industrial switches and routers.
SSHSecure Shell: Encrypted protocol for remote management of engineering workstations and network equipment.

Standards, legislation & regulation

FRFoundational Requirement: One of the seven fundamental security requirements within IEC 62443 (FR1 to FR7) — see the foundational requirements page for the full elaboration.
IEC 62443: International series of standards for cybersecurity of industrial automation and control systems (IACS).
ISO 27001ISO/IEC 27001: International standard for an information security management system.
NIS2Network and Information Security Directive 2: European directive that sets cybersecurity requirements for essential and important entities, including energy companies.
RFCRequest for Comments: Formally published internet standard, for example RFC 9116 for security.txt.

Platform, network & technology

APIApplication Programming Interface: Programmable interface through which IACS Radar retrieves live data from sources such as NVD and EPSS.
CDNContent Delivery Network: Network of servers that delivers content closer to the user — can distort IP-based location detection on the exposure map.
CSPContent Security Policy: HTTP security header that determines which scripts, styles and resources a page may load.
CSVComma-Separated Values: Simple text format for tabular data, used for the export and import functions of IACS Radar.
HSTSHTTP Strict Transport Security: Security header that forces a browser to access a site exclusively via HTTPS.
VPNVirtual Private Network: Encrypted network connection, widely used for remote access to OT environments — and a common target in the KEV catalogue.