Risk Management

Single Loss Expectancy (SLE)

SLE is the estimate of the amount of damage that an asset will suffer due to a single incident.

Asset categories include people, facilities, equipment, materials, information, activities, and operations.

Figure 9 – Single Loss Expectancy calculation

The following formula is used to calculate the single loss expectancy:

Single Loss Expectancy = Asset Value * Exposure Factor

Exposure Factor (EF) is expressed as a percentage of the asset value. If loss can be limited to one type, the impact on the asset by percentage of the asset value lost can be determined.