Folk Risk Analysis: Factors Influencing Security Analysts’ Interpretation of Risk

There are several standard approaches to risk analysis recommended for use in information security, however, the actual application of risk analysis by security analysts follows an opaque mix of standard risk analysis procedures and adaptations based on an analyst's understanding of risk. We refer to these approaches as Folk Risk Analysis. To understand folk risk analysis, we present the results of a study where Distributed Cognition and Grounded Theory were used to elicit factors influencing risk interpretation by security analysts, and the constrained conditions to risk decision making they encounter.