<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  7EVENTS > 7.2 Actual events vs “near misses”

 

The recording of actual events is pretty straightforward, an unwanted event happens, loss occurs and the impact is known. It is important to know this but it is equally important to know what events COULD have happened if the organisation’s controls had not stopped them – sometimes called “near misses”; after all, if in a year there were 20 potential threats, perhaps fraudulent loan applications, which could have resulted in losses of £1million and all of them were only prevented by one control and that control has no back-up, it is important to know this so as to perhaps institute some supporting controls. The events might only have been avoided through pure luck; again, control enhancement needs to be considered.

In summary, it is as important to understand how vulnerable the organisation is should some of its key controls fail as it is to understand where controls need to be installed to cover actual incurred losses.