UK National Audit Office - Risk Management

http://www.nao.org.uk/Guidance/topic.htm#Risk

"Good practice in the application of risk management - self assessment questions for departments " (PDF)
http://www.nao.org.uk/conferences/managing_risks/NAO_good_practice_risk_management.pdf

"Managing Risks to Improve Public Services" (PDF)
http://nao.gov.uk/publications/nao_reports/03-04/03041078.pdf

National Risk Register

"As announced in the National Security Strategy, the Government has published a National Risk Register which sets out our assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different risks that may directly affect the UK.

The National Risk Register is designed to increase awareness of the kinds of risks the UK faces, and encourage individuals and organisations to think about their own preparedness. The register also includes details of what the Government and emergency services are doing to prepare for emergencies."

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/national_risk_register.aspx

Assessing the risks, costs and benefits of United States aviation security measures

"This paper seeks to discover whether aviation security measures are cost-effective by considering their effectiveness, their cost and expected lives saved as a result of such expenditure."


http://ogma.newcastle.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2068

Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering

"Reliable systems are built by rigorously tested, incremental bottom-up engineering with an ‘attitude of highest quality’"

http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/Richard-Feynman-Challenger-Disaster-Software-Engineering

"We have also found that certification criteria used in Flight Readiness Reviews often develop a gradually decreasing strictness. The argument that the same risk was flown before without failure is often accepted as an argument for the safety of accepting it again. Because of this, obvious weaknesses are accepted again and again, sometimes without a sufficiently serious attempt to remedy them, or to delay a flight because of their continued presence."

http://www.ralentz.com/old/space/feynman-report.html

One Million Ways to Die

"Sept. 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the darkest and deadliest days in United States history. Al-Qaida's attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center killed 2,976 people, and the country recoiled in horror as we witnessed the death of thousands of Americans when the towers fell."

"But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and endless stories of half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you, statistically speaking, to die from a terrorist attack?"

"In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is."

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/09/71743

10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong

"Is your gym locker room crawling with drug-resistant bacteria? Is the guy with the bulging backpack a suicide bomber? And what about that innocent-looking arugula: Will pesticide residue cause cancer, or do the leaves themselves harbor E. coli? But wait! Not eating enough vegetables is also potentially deadly."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20071228-000005&print=1

"After 9/11, 1.4 million people changed their holiday travel plans to avoid flying. The vast majority chose to drive instead. But driving is far more dangerous than flying, and the decision to switch caused roughly 1,000 additional auto fatalities, according to two separate analyses comparing traffic patterns in late 2001 to those the year before. In other words, 1,000 people who chose to drive wouldn't have died had they flown instead."