What term describes the financial amount lost in one occurrence of a risk event, such as server downtime?

The appropriate term that refers to the financial amount lost in one occurrence of a risk event, like server downtime, is Single Loss Expectancy (SLE). This metric quantifies the potential impact of a single incident by estimating the monetary loss that would occur if that risk event takes place.

For example, if a server goes down and the business estimates that it would lose $5,000 in revenues due to this downtime, that $5,000 represents the SLE. This concept is crucial for organizations as it helps them understand the financial implications of specific risks, enabling better risk management and decision-making related to investments in preventive measures or controls.

Understanding SLE is essential for establishing a comprehensive risk management strategy, as it assists in calculating other risk management metrics, such as Annual Loss Expectancy (ALE), which projects potential yearly losses based on the estimated annual rate of occurrence of risk events.