It is a moderated forum concerned with the security and safety of computers, software, and technological systems.
Security, and risk, here are taken broadly; RISKS is concerned not merely with so-called security holes in software, but with unintended consequences and hazards stemming from the design (or lack thereof) of automated systems.
Other recurring subjects include cryptography and the effects of technically ill-considered public policies.
Although RISKS is a forum of a computer science association, most contributions are readable and informative to anyone with an interest in the subject.
Summaries of the forum appear as columns edited by Neumann in the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (SEN) and the Communications of the ACM (CACM).