It is an entity or event with the potential to adversely impact a system through unauthorized acces, destruction, disclosure, denial of service or modification of data. Which of the following terms be

An attack is the actual deliberate action taken to exploit a vulnerability, meaning it is an active event rather than a potential one.

A vulnerability is a weakness or flaw in a system, process, or control that could be exploited - it describes a condition, not an entity or event.

A threat is defined as any entity, circumstance, or event with the potential to adversely impact organizational operations or assets through unauthorized access, destruction, disclosure, modification of data, or denial of service. This aligns precisely with NIST and ISC2 definitions used across security certifications. The key distinguishing word is 'potential' - a threat has not yet materialized into an actual attack.

Risk is the probability that a threat will exploit a vulnerability combined with the resulting impact, making it a calculated measure rather than the threat itself.