The speed and scale of digital rollouts are putting risk and internal audit professionals in a difficult spot, and the smarter risk managers are making more use of data and digital capabilities to inform their decisions, according to a new study from consulting firm PwC.

PG&E Corp. has contained a natural gas leak from a pipe that exploded on Wednesday along a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, engulfing in flames a stretch known for its bars and restaurants.

The blaze, which had spread to at least five buildings as of Wednesday afternoon, triggered an evacuation order for people within a block of the site on Geary Boulevard — a major artery that leads into downtown San Francisco. Eight workers near the explosion were accounted for and no injuries were reported, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told reporters.

Every year, prior to the big event in Davos Switzerland where movers and shakers from around the world get together, the World Economic Forum produces a Global Risks Report. The report includes a survey of around one thousand members of their stakeholder communities. The results reported are worth the attention of executives that participate in risk management programs at their companies.

A growing trend in the insurance industry is that companies hesitant to insure a property that is vulnerable to environmental issues have started to offer incentives to policyholders who take steps ahead of time to address the risks, based on where the property is located. This attention to environmental sustainability and resilience saves both policyholders and insurance companies significant money in the long term and should become a best practice in the industry.

As every risk ­manager knows, the world is as fraught with risk as ever. This becomes even more apparent as natural disasters, cyberattacks, corporate malfeasance and political and economic uncertainty make headlines and create new business concerns. The following review of some of the notable risk events of 2018 can both remind us where we have been and provide insight into the challenges and opportunities we could face in the years to come.

Many projects overrun their budget and schedule targets, often due to the following causes:

Project plans are biased, usually towards being over-optimistic.
Project plans do not fully reflect the impact of uncertainty and risks (including both project-specific risks and systemic risks).

The last decade has seen an explosion in technologies with tremendous potential impact on a business. From internet-connected devices to the algorithms that can make sense of the mountains of data those devices produce, there’s never been a more exciting, compelling and confusing time to invest in innovation.

Tuesday marks the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The tragic loss of around 3,000 lives that day is still impacting the way first responders prepare for and respond to emergencies.

In 2003, President George W. Bush directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create a nationwide framework for emergency preparation and response, which is now known as the National Incident Management System.

Superior Fire Chief Steve Panger said it’s creation showed the federal government recognized that state and local responders are the first line of defense.

America’s opioid crisis has shifted. As Congress and the White House have dawdled, the overdose death toll has continued its steady climb — reaching more than 49,000 in 2017, an increase of nearly 7,000 over the previous year, itself a record-breaker. But the primary agent of death is no longer ordinary prescription painkillers. It’s illicit fentanyl, often mixed with heroin or some other street drug.

Among the more frightening elements of the world we inhabit is the ever-evolving set of extremist ideologies that give rise to justifications for violence. Terrorism is perhaps the clearest example of such violence, but workplace attacks are also increasingly likely to be ideologically motivated. To prevent or manage the risk of incidents, employers must take a proactive approach to spotting radicalization of all kinds. It is therefore important for them to understand the potential threat of “incel” culture, an emerging extremist ideology rooted in anger at women and driven by a furious sense of entitlement.