Threat

A Threat is a possible cause of a disruption.

In the Risk Assessment Toolkit, we distinguish between a generic Threat (with is not associated with any particular activity, resource or location) and a Threat to [Item], which is a specific, relevant, threat to a location, activity or resource. For example, we distinguish between the threat of Fire (as a concept), and the threat of Fire at a particular location.

You can add a set of common threats to your model by using the Load Common Threats item on the Tools menu.

You can create additional threats by right clicking on a Threat Category (such as All Threats).

In general the sequence is to create the threat, then to associate it with any locations, activities, or resources it should be associated with using the Add Threat link on that item.

The most common major threats for most organizations are:

Power Disruption, including blackouts and brownouts.
Network Disruption, affecting internet connectivity.
Flooding, whether from a burst pipe, a flash flood or a river bank overflowing
Fire.
Human Error.

Threat Report Contents

Not all these sections will appear in every report.

Section	Description
Description	A short description of the threat.
Threat Categories	The set of threat categories to which this threat belongs.
Default Frequency	An estimated frequency of how often this threat occurs. This will be used as the initial estimate of frequency when a threat is associated with a location, activity or resource.
Default Impact Duration	For threats whose impact is of a temporary nature (such as a power cut), an estimate as to how long the threat will prevent the location or resource from being used, or the activity from being carried out. This will be used as the initial value when a threat is associated with a location, activity or resource.
Items Directly Threatened	A table of locations, activities, and resources with which this threat has been associated.
Notes	A section intended for additional notes on such topics as how any data was gathered and what assumptions were made.

Items Directly Threatened Table

Heading	Description
Threatened Item	The name of the item threatened. Clicking on the name will show information about the threat to the item.
Type	Either Activity, Resource, or Location.
Frequency	An estimate for how often the threat will disrupt the item.
Impact Delay	If the threat will only impact the item for a limited period, the length of the period. Otherwise Indefinite.
Item Description	The description associated with the threat to the item.