What does SCADA stand for?
SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. Supervisory control and data acquisition: systems that monitor and control industrial processes across sites, such as pipelines and power grids. They are a subset of ICS.
A SCADA system supervises and controls equipment spread over a wide area from a central point: pipelines, water networks, electricity distribution, railways. Field devices at remote sites, such as remote terminal units and programmable logic controllers, read sensors and operate valves or breakers. They report over long-distance links to central servers, where operators watch the process on screens and send commands. Many SCADA installations were designed for isolated networks and use protocols with no authentication or encryption.
SCADA in practice: an example
A water utility's control room shows the level of twenty reservoirs across a region. When one runs low, the operator starts a pump at a station forty kilometres away from the console. The command travels over a radio link to the controller at the station, which starts the motor and reports the new state.
What SCADA is confused with
SCADA vs ICS: what is the difference?
ICS is the family name for all industrial control systems. SCADA is the member of that family used for supervising sites that are far apart. What ICS stands for
SCADA vs PLC: what is the difference?
A programmable logic controller is one device that runs the control logic for a machine. A SCADA system collects data from many controllers and gives operators one view.
Which exams cover SCADA?
SCADA is on the official CompTIA acronym list for three of the four exams covered here.
- CySA+ CS0-004: 1.1 (Security Operations).
- Network+ N10-009: 4.0 (Network Security).
- A+ 220-1201 and 220-1202: 220-1201 2.0 (Networking).
Each number is a CompTIA exam objective and the name in brackets is its domain. The exam puts the term in a scenario; it does not ask you to recite the expansion.
Check yourself: two practice questions
Written by CertSprint for this page. They are not taken from any exam.
1. Which environment is the most typical use of a SCADA system?
- A single office printer
- A pipeline with pumping stations across several hundred kilometres
- A laptop's battery management
- A website's shopping cart
Show the answer
B. A pipeline with pumping stations across several hundred kilometres. SCADA exists to supervise and control equipment at many distant sites from one control room.
2. Why are older SCADA protocols a security concern?
- They only work on wireless networks
- Many were designed without authentication or encryption
- They require too much bandwidth
- They cannot carry sensor readings
Show the answer
B. Many were designed without authentication or encryption. They were built for closed networks where every device was trusted. Once such a network is reachable from outside, anyone who can send a command may be obeyed.
Sources: NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3, Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security; NIST glossary: supervisory control and data acquisition. The acronym and its expansion come from CompTIA's official acronym lists, linked from each exam glossary above. The explanation, example and questions are CertSprint's own, checked against these sources on 11 November 2026.