Assessing the economic loss and social impact of information system breakdowns

Abstract

The pervasiveness of information systems raises security and business continuity issues related to their disruption. Policy makers involved in preventing and preparing for unexpected critical events need to understand the direct and indirect socio-economic impacts of potential information system disruptions. This paper presents a new methodology for assessing the sectors that are most vulnerable to critical information system breakdowns. The vulnerability of information systems (VIS) model, which is based on the well-known input-output paradigm, simulates information system disruptions and assesses their socio-economic impact in the dynamic framework of sector interdependencies and cascading failure effects. The VIS model represents an important step in research focused on the prevention, preparedness and impact assessment of unexpected information system breakdowns. It sheds light on how the effects of a disruption can spread and helps identify critical infrastructures from a socio-economic perspective. © 2010 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.