U.S. flag   An unofficial archive of your favorite United States government website
Dot gov

Official websites do not use .rip
We are an unofficial archive, replace .rip by .gov in the URL to access the official website. Access our document index here.

Https

We are building a provable archive!
A lock (Dot gov) or https:// don't prove our archive is authentic, only that you securely accessed it. Note that we are working to fix that :)

Computer Security Resource Center

Computer Security Resource Center

This is an archive
(replace .gov by .rip)
    Glossary
A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H  |  I  |  J  |  K  |  L  |  M  |  N  |  O  |  P  |  Q  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  U  |  V  |  W  |  X  |  Y  |  Z

critical component

Definition(s):

  A component which is or contains information and communications technology (ICT), including hardware, software, and firmware, whether custom, commercial, or otherwise developed, and which delivers or protects mission critical functionality of a system or which, because of the system’s design, may introduce vulnerability to the mission critical functions of an applicable system.
Source(s):
CNSSI 4009-2015 from DoDI 5200.44

  A system element that, if compromised, damaged, or failed, could cause a mission or business failure.
Source(s):
NIST SP 800-161 under Critical Component
NISTIR 7622 under Critical Component