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Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.09.28

What are an actor, an interaction and a component in the CSA notation?

An actor triggers an action, and can be a person or any cyber device; an interaction is an action triggered by an actor on a component, drawn as an arrow from actor to component; a component is a part belonging to a system, which can itself be any cyber device or subsystem.

  • Actor: the trigger of an action. Besides people, this can be any kind of cyber device: an IT system, IT service, OT system, machine, smartphone, application, resource or IoT device. Actors that are not people are called non-human identities (NHI).
  • Interaction: the action an actor triggers on a component. The arrow always points from the actor to the component.
  • Component: a part of a system. It can again be any cyber device or a whole subsystem.

A service can be an actor in one interaction and a component in another, which is typical of modern systems where services call each other.

From Quiz: CSARCH / Models, Standards and Terms | Updated: Sep 28, 2026