Critical Data Point

The point in time to which data must be restored and synchronized to achieve a Maximum Acceptable Outage.

Critical Infrastructure

Physical assets (e.g., electrical power, telecommunications, water, gas and transportation) whose disruption or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the economic and/or physical security of an entity (e.g., organization, community, nation).

Critical Staff

Staff members whose skills, knowledge and/or involvement are necessary to recover a critical business function.

Critical Success Factors (CSF)

A management technique developed in 1970's but still popular, in which an organization identifies a limited number of activities it has to get correct to achieve its primary missions.

Critical Supplier

Looking back in the logistical process (upstream) of a product or service, any supplier that could cause a disruption or outage to the organization's critical functions as documented in the BIA.