Cybersecurity Program Development for Business

CHAPTER 1Understanding Risk

If you're reading this book, I'd hazard a guess that you've read some of the doom‐and‐gloom cybersecurity books out there as well. There are many, and many are great (see the bibliography for suggestions). What's more, I am sure you have had your fill of statistics. Dreadful statistics showing how cybercrime is increasing by the day. I'll include some of those, too, just to satisfy any morbid curiosity left in you, but they are essentially useless. By the time the ink is dry on these pages, the numbers have changed. For the worse.

A BRIEF SAMPLING OF DREAD

• Hacker Attack Rate: 39 Seconds

  Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Michel Cukier at the A. James Clark School of Engineering conducted the study that profiled the actions of hackers using brute‐force methods to gain access to a set of exposed computers. The results showed that the computers were attacked about 2,244 times per day.

• More than 33 percent of United States consumers have experienced a cyberattack.

  This was reported in a survey by Zogby Analytics commission for the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), with the most likely victims being between 18 and 24 years old. Moreover, the associated incident costs ranged from $500 for 56 percent of the cases to between $1,000 and $5,000 for 23 percent of the cases.

• According to the “Internet Security Threat Report—Symantec 2017” (Volume 22, April 2017):
  • It takes on average two minutes for an Internet of ...