Major Risks in the IT Industry

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, from the Actuarial and Insurance department, conducted a study on risk terms in 2007. The study involved comparing notions and definitions of various terms in risk across several sectors and industries, including Information Technology (IT). The IT respondents listed the following major risks for their industry (click to enlarge)

The researchers noted that the IT sector had the largest number of risks. By way of comparison, the major risks for the energy industry looked like this

Notice that IT Failure risk is on the list but very much towards the bottom.