Knowledge Systems and Risk Management

Abstract

Knowledge is the most important asset that a company can have. Thus, it is imperative that this asset is safeguarded just like generic information assets. However, knowledge management (KM) and knowledge systems are different than traditional information systems with different threats and different operational requirements. Information security professionals recognize that risk assessment is the cornerstone to information security. The authors build on this perspective and propose that risk assessment techniques need to be applied to KM too to properly safeguard this asset. They discuss risk assessment frameworks and build on a KM/knowledge system specific risk assessment framework with a step-by-step guideline for KM/knowledge system specific threat assessment.