rischiorischio

Rischiorischio is a neologistic term used in Italian risk management to describe a higher-order risk that arises from the process of addressing risks itself. The word is a compound built from rischio (risk) to signal that actions taken to manage or reduce risk can, in turn, generate new uncertainties or amplify existing ones.

Definition and scope: Rischiorischio refers to risks created by risk-mitigation measures, governance decisions, or data-driven processes. These include unintended side effects of controls, biases introduced by monitoring systems, model or assumption errors, complacency or overconfidence, and feedback loops where improved monitoring changes behavior in ways that affect outcomes. The concept is used to discuss the total risk landscape, not just primary, observable threats.

Origins and usage: The term appears in contemporary Italian risk discourse, primarily in corporate governance, public policy discussions, and IT/security risk analyses. It is not universally standardized and is often employed as a descriptive shorthand rather than a formal methodological category.

Applications: Rischiorischio is used to frame analysis of secondary effects and to justify additional safeguards, testing, or iterative review. In IT security, for example, patching may reduce one vulnerability but introduce compatibility risks; in operations, cost-cutting measures may raise supplier or process risks.

Relation to other concepts: It is related to meta-risk, second-order risk, and risk amplification, and is sometimes compared with systemic or cascading risk phenomena. Critics note that it can blur clear causal links if applied too loosely.

See also: meta-risk, second-order risk, risk amplification, systemic risk.