Financial entitiesas defined in Article 2, points (a) to (t) should monitor the performance of the ICT service provision and any relevant changes occurring within their subcontracting chain providing ICT servicesmeans digital and data services provided through ICT systems to one or more internal or external users on an ongoing basis, including hardware as a service and hardware services which includes the provision of technical support via software or firmware updates by the hardware provider, excluding traditional analogue telephone services; supporting critical or important functionmeans a function, the disruption of which would materially impair the financial performance of a financial entity, or the soundness or continuity of its services and activities, or the discontinued, defective or failed performance of that function would materially impair the continuing compliance of a financial entity with the conditions and obligations of its authorisation, or with its other obligations under applicable financial services law; to mitigate any vulnerabilitiesmeans a weakness, susceptibility or flaw of an asset, system, process or control that can be exploited; and threats that may pose risks to their ICT systems and operations.