Assessing Internet Security Risk, Part 1: What is Risk Assessment?
The Internet, like the Wild West of old, is an uncharted new world, full of fresh and exciting opportunities. However, like the Wild West, the Internet is also fraught with new threats and obstacles; dangers the average businessman and home user hasn’t even begun to understand. But I don’t have to tell you this. You’ve heard that exact speech at just about every single security conference or seminar you’ve ever attended, usually accompanied by a veritable array of slides and graphs demonstrating exactly how serious the threat is and how many millions of dollars your company stands to loose. The “death toll” statistic are then almost always followed by a sales pitch for some or other product that’s supposed to make it all go away. Yeah right. Am I saying the threat isn’t real? Am I saying the statistics aren’t true? No. What I’m saying is that many users fail to see what relevance any of this has to themselves and their company. Should the fact that e-Bay supposedly spent $120,000 dolla
