Effects of Cyber Threats in IT Projects Using the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping Approach

Mismatches in time and cost are among the most important reasons for the failure of information     technology projects. But it should be borne in mind that neglecting security issues, especially in projects with the nature of working with data and information, can cause irreparable damage to the project   organization. Meanwhile, recognizing the factors that can threaten an IT project in cyberspace, and the impact of each of these factors on the other has great importance. In fact, the project manager can be more effective in preventing these threats by knowing the impact of the criteria. In this research, the main factors that could threaten an IT project in cyberspace are identified. At the next step, some of these threats are eliminated by Friedman test and the 6 threats which remain are more important than others, in expert’s opinion. Then their weights are calculated by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach and eventually their effects on each other are determined by using the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) method. The     results show that, lack of appropriate encryption and authentication systems is the most effective, and cyber espionage is the most influenced of these threats.