RISKS Digest
The RISKS Digest or Forum On Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems is an online periodical published from 1985 to April 2026 by the Committee on Computers and Public Policy of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The editor and moderator, prior to his death in May 2026, was Peter G. Neumann.[1]
Topics
[edit]It is a moderated forum concerned with the security and safety of computers, software, and technological systems.[2] Security, and risk, here are taken broadly; RISKS is concerned not merely with so-called security holes in software, but with unintended consequences and hazards stemming from the design (or lack thereof) of automated systems. Other recurring subjects include cryptography and the effects of technically ill-considered public policies. RISKS also publishes announcements and Calls for Papers from various technical conferences, and technical book reviews (usually by Rob Slade, though occasionally by others).
Although RISKS is a forum of a computer science association, most contributions are readable and informative to anyone with an interest in the subject. It is heavily read by system administrators, and computer security managers, as well as computer scientists and engineers. It was an especially important source of news about computer security in the 1990s.[3][4] As the largest and oldest collection of information security risks available online, researchers have analyzed the archives as a data set.[5]
Publication
[edit]Neumann established the Forum On Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems in 1985 at the request of the president of the ACM at the time, Adele Goldberg.[6]
The RISKS Digest is published on a frequent but irregular schedule through the moderated Usenet newsgroup comp.risks, which exists solely to carry the Digest. It is also available via email. Summaries of the forum appear as columns edited by Neumann in the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (SEN) and the Communications of the ACM (CACM).[6]
As of June 2026, the Risks Digest web archive said "I'm sad to have to tell you that Peter Neumann died on the 17th May. This website will be here as long as I am able to maintain it, but whether or not there is any future RISKS content anywhere, I cannot say."[7]
References
[edit]- ↑ Garfinkel, Simson (May 18, 2026). "In Memoriam: Peter G. Neumann (1932-2026)". Communications of the ACM. Retrieved June 5, 2026.
- ↑ Ingraham, Patrick (July 2019). "High-Tech Future Comes With Risks and Rewards". National Society of Professional Engineers. Retrieved June 5, 2026.
- ↑ Brown, Andrew (October 11, 1999). "It's a blog's life". New Statesman. Archived from the original on April 10, 2001. Retrieved June 5, 2026.
- ↑ Culnan, Mary J. (2019). "Policy to Avoid a Privacy Disaster". Journal of the Association for Information Systems: 848–856. doi:10.17705/1jais.00554.
- ↑ Wiesche, Manuel; Keskinov, Hristo; Schermann, Michael; Krcmar, Helmut (January 2013). "Classifying Information Systems Risks: What Have We Learned So Far?". 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE. pp. 5013–5022. Bibcode:2013hics.conf..630W. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2013.130. ISBN 978-1-4673-5933-7.
- 1 2 Neumann, Peter G. (June 30, 2024). "Annual Report Relating to the ACM Risks Forum For the Period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024" (PDF). ACM. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- ↑ Marshall, Lindsay. "The RISKS Digest". Newcastle University. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
External links
[edit]- RISKS Digest web archive
- RISKS Digest (Usenet newsgroup comp.risks)
- Archival (through early 2024) Google groups interface to comp.risks
- Risk
- Safety engineering
- Computer security procedures
- Magazines established in 1985
- Association for Computing Machinery magazines
- Professional and trade magazines published in the United States
- SRI International
- Engineering magazines
- Irregularly published magazines published in the United States
- 1985 establishments in the United States