The definitions of the terms below have been adapted from ISO 22300:2021 and from the terminology list of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

Business or service continuity: The capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products and services within acceptable time frames at predefined capacity during a disruption or a crisis.

Business or service continuity plan: A documented information that guides an organization to respond to disruptions and resume, recover and restore the delivery of products and services consistent with its business continuity objectives.

Crisis: A situation with a high level of uncertainty that disrupts the core activities and/or credibility of an organization and requires urgent action.

Disruption: An incident, whether anticipated or unanticipated, that causes an unplanned negative deviation from the expected delivery of products and services according to an organization’s objectives.

Hazard: A process, phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury, property damage, or service disruption.

Incident: An event that can be, or could lead to, a disruption, loss emergency or crisis.

Resilience: The ability of an institution exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.

Risk: The combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences.

Vulnerability: The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets or systems to the impacts of hazards.