Low Frequency; High Impact
One of the biggest problems in quantifying risk is dealing with events (attacks and compromises) that may only occur once or twice in a lifetime. This problem is exacerbated when the impact is high. But in the aggregate, "low frequency, high impact" (LFHI) events occur all the time, as we see from news stories. With the efficiency of the Internet in news distribution and search, we can build our knowledge of the overall number of LFHI events occurring worldwide. Eventually, these may be used to give us a quantified risk metric. Today, they are useful as anecdotes for non-believers.
In the spirit of the LFHI, I have decided to keep track of news articles with the words "freak accident" in them. I figure "freak accident" is synonymous (enough) with LFHI to be interesting food for thought. Here is the list for the past week:
Google Alert for: "freak accident"
Wife Strikes Officer with Car in Freak Accident
6abc.com - Philadelphia,PA,USA
January 11, 2006 - A Delaware County police officer is spending the night in the hospital after being hit by a car just before 6pm Wednesday night. ...
Watkins Mill wrestler paralyzed in ‘freak accident'
Business Gazette - Gaithersburg,MD,USA
... nine teams. ‘‘The team is upset about Mike, but certainly we all know it'sa freak accident," Kachadorian said. ‘‘It's ...
See all stories on this topic
Three devotees killed in freak accident
NewKerala.com - Ernakulam,Kerala,India
Tirupati: A driverless vehicle slammed into a row of devotees waiting for darshan at a temple in Kanipakkam on 'Vaikunta Ekadasi' last night, killing three of ...
Bus owner dies after freak accident
Times of Malta - Valletta,Malta
Paul Buttigieg, a 61-year-old bus owner from Zabbar, died after he was crushed between two of his buses in Zabbar Road, Fgura on Monday night. ...
Freak accident didn't spoil the day
Advertiser Adelaide - Adelaide,South Australia,Australia
... longer until she recovers," she said. Trevor Forster described his mother's fall as a "freak accident". "It certainly didn't spoil ...
Childersburg man killed in freak accident involving a deer
Daily Home Online - Talladega,AL,USA
A 47-year-old Childersburg man was killed in a freak accident early Monday when a deer came through a window of the truck he was riding in and struck him. ...
See all stories on this topic
Man in freak accident dies [10/01/2006]
Times of Malta - Valletta,Malta
A 61-year-old man from Zabbar died in hospital from wounds sustained after being crushed between two buses in Zabbar Road, Fgura. ...
Japanese factory manager killed in freak accident
Bahrain News Agency - Bahrain
Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 8 (BNA) A Japanese factory manager died in Malaysia after a robotic arm knocked him on the head, a news report said Sunday. ...
The Economist characterized Mr. Greenspan's style as dealing with LFHI issues like deflation rather than worrying about all the HFL/MI, I think IT security can learn some lessons here. In many cases IT Security is like the Fed, centralized island with some control in a fairly decentralized operation.
Posted by: Gunnar | January 12, 2006 at 09:05 PM