Cybersecurity and GRC terminology: English to Mexican Spanish
Use this guide when translating cybersecurity, privacy, audit, and GRC content for professionals in Mexico. It describes professional usage, not word-for-word equivalence.
Edition 2026.3. The companion guide, Spanish to English, lives on the Spanish version of this page. If something here is not how you would say it, tell us.
Legal note: Legal terms are date-sensitive, and this guide is not legal advice. Verify the current official instrument, authority, and procedure before relying on a legal translation.
How to use this guide
The default register is formal Mexican professional writing: security policies, audit reports, regulatory material, technical documentation, and professional training. Team chat, job titles, product names, commands, and quoted interface text may retain more English.
- Translate: Mexican professional writing normally uses the Spanish term.
- Keep in English: The English borrowing is the normal specialist term in Mexico.
- Context-dependent: The correct form changes with technical sense, register, organization, or jurisdiction.
- Official name or acronym: Preserve the official name, designation, or working acronym.
- Legal term, date-sensitive: Use the wording of the governing instrument and verify the current official text.
Consistency applies to the same sense, register, jurisdiction, and grammatical use. It does not require different concepts to share one translation.
Terms
cloud
→nubeTranslateFormal technical writing
Use nube or a scoped phrase such as servicio en la nube in running prose. Preserve cloud in official product names, certifications, and job titles.
Sources: Official DOF security provisions for financial-technology institutions
That is not how I would say it
NOM
→NOM; Norma Oficial MexicanaOfficial name or acronymMexican technical regulation
Preserve NOM, the full official identifier, and the Spanish title. Do not replace the designation with a generic norma mexicana. A NOM applies only within its stated scope. NOM-151-SCFI-2016 concerns conservation of data messages and digitization; it is not a general substitute for HIPAA, GDPR, or a cybersecurity law.
Sources: Quality Infrastructure Law · Official record for NOM-151-SCFI-2016
That is not how I would say it
PII
→PII; información de identificación personalContext-dependentUS frameworks and cross-jurisdiction privacy work
When PII is a named US or NIST construct, retain PII and, if needed, explain it as información de identificación personal. Do not silently replace it with Mexican datos personales; the scopes are not automatically identical.
Sources: NIST CSRC glossary entry for PII · Current LFPDPPP, Chamber of Deputies
That is not how I would say it
scope
→alcanceTranslateAudit, assessment, and project work
Use alcance; out of scope is fuera del alcance.
Evidence basis: Professional usage judgment; no legal force is claimed.