Quantifying and Lowering Security Costs - Hard Dollars

Abstract Businesses today use the Internet primarily as a means of providing fast convenient access to public information. But, the potential business uses go much further. Electronic commerce, for example, significantly will lower the cost of dayto-day business transactions, and virtual private networks provide a lower-cost alternative to traditional data and even voice networks. However, these advanced uses of the Internet require a stronger security infrastructure than most companies have in place today. This means greater costs associated with security but, until recently, there was very little data even on today's cost of security. The author recently was involved in conducting primary research that addresses this issue and shares the findings and a look at tactical approaches that can start to control those costs.