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Glossary

Risk assessment

The process of identifying what could go wrong, how likely it is, and what it would cost.

What it means

A risk assessment identifies threats and vulnerabilities, judges likelihood and consequence, and produces a prioritised view of what to treat first. It may be qualitative — high, medium, low — or quantitative, expressing exposure in money and probability.

The weakness in most assessments is not the method but the shelf life. An assessment is a snapshot; the systems, suppliers and people it describes change within months, and nothing in the assessment itself notices.

Where MyRISK fits

What we do about it

Where the need is a current picture that stays current, that is the Essentials baseline and its monthly refresh. Where the need is to show that a specific decision was reasonable on the information available at the time — which an assessment does not do — that is Trace.

MyRISK Essentials

Is this the thing you are actually trying to fix?

A definition rarely settles it. Tell us what happened — the request, the finding, the challenge or the incident — and we will say where to start, or that it isn't us.