In some cases, managers may find it most cost-effective to simply tolerate the expected losses. The following threats and associated losses are based on their prevalence and significance in the current computing environment and their expected growth. Errors and Omissions Users, data entry clerks, system operators, and programmers frequently make unintentional errors which contribute to security problems, directly and indirectly. Sometimes the error is the threat, such as a data entry error or a programming error that crashes a system. In other cases, errors create vulnerabilities.
Errors can occur in all phases of the system life cycle.
Programming and development errors, often called bugs, range in severity from benign to catastrophic. Installation and maintenance errors also cause security problems. Errors and omissions are important threats to data integrity. Errors are caused not only by data entry clerks processing hundreds of transactions per day, but by all users who create and edit data. Many programs, especially those designed by users for personal computers, lack quality control measures.