An industrial control system (ICS) can be described and defined in many ways. Each definition will vary slightly based on the sector within which it is being used. However, there are global professional associations and government agencies that set industry standards and definitions to create a common language to be used by all professionals. One example is the International Society of Automation (ISA), which provides a definition of an ICS in the ISA/IEC 62443 glossary as: “A collection of personnel, hardware, software, and policies involved in the operation of the industrial process and that can affect or influence its safe, secure, and reliable operation."[d:9048] Another example is one provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which defines an ICS as, “An information system used to control industrial processes such as manufacturing, product handling, production, and distribution. Industrial control systems include supervisory control and data acquisition systems used to control geographically dispersed assets, as well as distributed control systems and smaller control systems using programmable logic controllers to control localized processes."[d:9049]