Integrating national risk assessments with ERM & Continuity Operations

NOTE: This will be a hybrid event held both virtually and in-person. The in-person option will include lunch, and the registration deadline is Wednesday 4/2 at 5pm CT

The virtual deadline is Tuesday 4/8 at 10am. Connection details will be sent via email. Register for Virtual Option: Here!

Synopsis: The federal government has identified numerous areas of strategic risk to the nation’s critical infrastructure and encourages the private sector to take action to mitigate risk. Unfortunately, the risks are poorly understood by the private sector due to lack of reliable information, sensationalized claims of destruction in fictional stories and a failure of the government to clarify and prioritize risk. Four specific areas of interest are:

• overdependence on the global positioning system (GPS),
• high altitude electromagnetic pulse or EMP,
• space weather and
• unrecognized risks associated with terrestrial infrastructure’s dependence on access to space-based systems.

Congressional testimony and federal reports on these issues have claimed impacts ranging from a billion dollars a day, to the death of two-thirds of Americans. As a result, each of these areas has been the subject of Presidential Executive Orders that have generally survived from one administration to the next. The Governor of Texas issued a state executive order to address risk from EMP and Space Weather. The initial findings were submitted to the Governor on January 15, 2025.

A basic understanding of these events, based on reliable information, enables risk managers and continuity professionals to integrate these events into the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process. Understanding these hazards and basing risk management decisions on clearly defined scenarios is essential. Whenever possible, risk assessments must use precise language that enables a common understanding of the hazards and risk. This precise language also enables a common framework upon which to make decisions and enables more accurate cause and effect assessments of potential mitigations.

About our Speaker: James Platt, President and Founder, Strategic Risk Integration (SRI) See biographical document for more details.

Host or Publisher ACP Greater Houston Chapter