RISKS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 1

Risks of information technology

The word risk is used to refer to the likelihood of a negative effect manifesting itself as a result

of making a decision to use or to follow a particular path, in most cases such negative effects

result in losses, one being held responsible for harm done and some businesses being damaged in

the eventuality that a risk does occur (Dhillon, & 1996).. There are several kinds of risk that on is

bound to face when he or she becomes dependent on information technology in one way or the

other. This article will therefore show case and elaborate further some of these risks with the

objective of educating and warning readers about these kinds of risks.

Vendor Risks

This is a situation when the person or company providing the information communication

solutions fails to meet and execute his mandate to the recipient of the service which mostly

results in sensitive information like social security numbers or health records being shared with

third parties. In case these were to happen the law will not hold the vendor as being responsible

for the breach but instead it will point an accusing finger at the owner of the information

(Sjberg, & Fromm 2001).

Facility Risks

Occurs when facilities like information storage centers or office residents experience

hitches and bring about the disruption and eventually the collapse of an enterprise. Many

businesses have been impaired by things like protests which prevent others from accessing

business premises due to safety reasons where in other instances some convention centers have

had to shut their businesses due to fire outbreaks which in turn result to these businesses

incurring losses as a consequence of cancelling trade shows.

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Infrastructure risks

Infrastructures are the most important services that are depended upon by other

enterprises in order for such businesses to be able to function. Therefore infrastructure risks

bring about huge losses when there is failure in any business service or in the structure of its

organization for example when an organization network goes down or its data center experience

power breaks downs.

Innovation risks

Innovation brings about change and tends to place more emphasis on revolution over

improvement; it helps businesses that innovate to be able to jump ahead of their competitors

through the creation of new technologies, design and processes. It requires that businesses take

high level risks as it is indeed impossible to revolutionize an industry through the

implementation of conservative thoughts. Innovation risk is viewed as being a special type of

risk as unlike others; here businesses anticipate regular failures as they try to figure what works

for them and what does not (Blili, & Raymond 1993). Early innovations are usually characterizes

by high probability and low impacts as they are expected to fail in a cheap and safe way from the

start. However, as innovations move closer to their launch they become of low probability and of

high impact risks due to the diligence accorded to them at this stage.

Integration risks

Come about when the efforts of trying to bring together certain aspects such as

technology, department, information and processes fails to work and end up causing damages

and liabilities to an enterprise. Poorly designed data integration between two technologies can

result in data problems that will in the long run cause damage to essential operational processes.
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Legacy technology

When a particular type of technology becomes out dated and hard to maintain then it is

vulnerable and prone to failure and therefore becomes an operational risk to an enterprise. Just

like human beings, information technology is prone to ageing very quickly and therefor requires

that it be updated regularly (Sjberg, & Fromm 2001).. The need to update such them can arise

from scenarios where the technologies being used by the system for example the operating

system, hardware and software are no longer supported by the same system or when it becomes

evident the skills and the technical know-how required to support or extend the system are no

longer easy to acquire from the market.

Operational risks

These are the probabilities that a loss may occur as a result of the enterprise day to day

activities and operations. Each activity that an organization undertakes in the course of doing

business and exposes it to risks despite the measures taken to optimize and reduce the risks. It is

brought about by either the collapse of processes or by the failure to manage and control standard

processes. On a practical note however, organization choose to go ahead and take some form of

risks with the processes they establish. When an important network device goes through a series

of errors and perhaps causes a disconnection from the website of an organization, revenues tends

to decrease and the satisfaction of its clients drops significantly.

Partner risks

They are the various likelihoods that a partner failing to meet his and deliver his

obligations to once business therefore causing the later to incur unprecedented losses and

unnecessary business damages for example when an information technology company fails to
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deliver technology that will promote transformation to a particular project as expected or

anticipated by the organization that sought for the service.

Single point of failure

This is critical as it gives the small components of a system to have power over the whole

system as when a such small components that make up the larger system do at one point

experience a hitch then the whole system breaks down and becomes disabled until something is

done to correct any problems that might have affected that particular small component (Dhillon,

& Backhouse 1996).. This then necessitates the development of highly reliable systems with

little to no single points of failure using methods such as redundant systems; as even particular

software update on a system can end up bringing about problems for a million other devices that

are connected to the same system.

Process risks

They are notorious as they are bring about the disruptions and damages to an system as a result

of failures in the information and technology sectors, as these errors go ahead to invalidate

processes that bring about the smooth running and operation of an integrated system. There is no

kind of undertaking in his world that does not necessitate the undertaking of risks in one way or

another as it is these risks that determine who or what becomes successful in the end. Therefore

they should be viewed with a moderate perspective and used in a positive way to promote

creativity and innovations in this modern day and age

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References

Dhillon, G., & Backhouse, J. (1996). Risks in the use of information technology within

organizations. International Journal of Information Management, 16(1), 65-74.

Sjberg, L., & Fromm, J. (2001). Information technology risks as seen by the public. Risk

Analysis, 21(3), 427-442.

Blili, S., & Raymond, L. (1993). Information technology: Threats and opportunities for small

and medium-sized enterprises. International journal of information management, 13(6),

439-448.