A risk indicator for categorical data

n this paper we present a suitable measure of risk for data expressed on an ordinal scale. The proposed indicator is based on the cumulative probabilities of the ordinal variable that represents the level of severity for different risk events. The method relies on the construction of a Criticality index which may be used as an initial view of the level of risk, for comparisons among environments, to indicate how risk changes over time, and to identify appropriate interventions. Along with the description of the methodology, we present two examples of application in statistical quality control field and in cyber risk evaluation.