Just as the computer journalists were summing up 2003 and warning about escalating hazards from increased malicious cyberspace contaminations in 2004, Mydoom.A and its variant Mydoom.B struck and broke all records for speed of infection. The worm was also the first to be blamed for slowing response times on the Internet due to congestion.
At the very least, it is proof that managing risk is always a relevant topic. Certainly it is no coincidence that risk management is the core concern of two of the winners at the 2003 Canadian Information Productivity Awards. This issue’s profiles on those winners, Terra Payments and RBC Financial Group, attest that IT plays a key role in managing risk. However, in some ways, IT in itself has also become a risk as well. The risk of downtime from failed systems is very real and consumes a major component of operational risk management.
Keeping the lights on and all operation
