Assessing the Risks of IT Infrastructure - A Personal Network Perspective

This paper adds the aspect of problem solving in personal networks to an existing risk assessment model of end-user computing technology. Due to various reasons, information technology (IT) risk assessment for end-user computing systems like desktop computers is gaining importance, especially the availability of these systems. Users are a vital part of these systems, and any user incident renders the system unavailable until the incident is resolved. Classical approaches consider only measurable user incidents. This neglects the fact, that a lot of problem solving takes place in unofficial personal networks. Based on expert interviews, this paper presents an approach that integrates personal network characteristics into a causal model for risk assessment and gives an outlook to further research.