The Future of Monitoring: Turning Unknown Unknowns into Known Knowns
To ascertain risk, national security and intelligence professionals have long used concepts such as known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. The idea of unknown unknowns was created in 1955 by American psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995). This concept continues to be used today in risk assessments and is applicable to technology. The unknown unknowns are the threats and potential problems that remain invisible until their impact manifests.