Threat as an Essential Element of Risk Management

Abstract

Distributing critical and time-sensitive information to leaders and other essential decision authorities is an operational imperative and challenge for every organization. In short, the actual risks being incurred are not well understood. Of the three major elements of risk (vulnerability, threat, mission impact), threat information is often the most elusive to obtain. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a basic introduction and reference to general threats on information systems. This chapter will serve as a starting point for analysts to better understand the threats aligned against their critical information infrastructures and ultimately allow them to determine an appropriate level of investment more effectively in information systems security countermeasures.