The RISKS Digest or Forum On Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems is an online periodical published since 1985 by the Committee on Computers and Public Policy of the Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

. The editor is Peter G. Neumann

Peter G. Neumann

Peter G. Neumann is a researcher who has worked on the Multics operating system in the 1960s. He edits the Computer Risks columns for ACM Software Engineering Notes and Communications of the ACM. He founded ACM SIGSOFT and is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE and AAAS.He studied at Harvard University ,...

.

It is a moderated forum concerned with the security and safety of computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s, software, and technological systems. Security, and risk, here are taken broadly; RISKS is concerned not merely with so-called security holes in software, but with unintended consequence

Unintended consequence

In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...

s and hazards stemming from the design (or lack thereof) of automated systems. Other recurring subjects include cryptography

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...

 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

Robert Slade

Robert Michael Slade, also known as Robert M. Slade and Rob Slade, is an information security consultant, researcher and instructor from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses, Software Forensics, Dictionary of Information Security...

, though occasionally by others).

Although RISKS is a forum of a computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 association, most contributions are readable and informative to anyone with an interest in the subject. It is heavily read by system administrator

System administrator

A system administrator, IT systems administrator, systems administrator, or sysadmin is a person employed to maintain and operate a computer system and/or network...

s, and computer security

Computer security

Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...

 managers, as well as computer scientists and engineers

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

.

The RISKS Digest is published on a frequent but irregular schedule through the moderated Usenet

Usenet

Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...

 newsgroup

Newsgroup

A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...

 comp.risks, which exists solely to carry the Digest.

Summaries of the forum appear as columns edited by Neumann in the ACM SIGSOFT

SIGSOFT

The Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Software Engineering provides a forum for computing professionals from industry, government and academia to examine principles, practices, and new research results in software engineering....

 Software Engineering Notes

Software Engineering Notes

The ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes is published by the Association for Computing Machinery for the Special Interest Group on Software Engineering . It provides a forum for informal articles and other information on software engineering.- External links :*...

(SEN) and the Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM is the flagship monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery . First published in 1957, CACM is sent to all ACM members, currently numbering about 80,000. The articles are intended for readers with backgrounds in all areas of computer science and information...

(CACM).

External links

• [news:///comp.risks RISKS Digest] (Usenet newsgroup comp.risks)
• Google groups interface to comp.risks
• RISKS Digest web archive
• Mailing List Subscription Web Interface