Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Creating a Budget for Your Plan

Developing a written security document is an investment in itself. If nothing else, it bears the cost of your time. But as the resources and follow-up section of your security plan indicates, that step is only the beginning when it comes to paying the price for security. You probably already put down a fair chunk of change but haven't tallied your investment. The typical places in which you probably already spent money include insurance for your computer equipment, antivirus software, and a good firewall for your network.

Determining how much more you need to spend depends on your circumstances. Research and executive surveys, such as the one conducted by Gartner, found that businesses spend approximately 5 percent of their annual IT budgets on security. According to the report, that number probably works out to just over $500 per employee — an amount considerably less than in previous years. The smaller number could be a result of a weak economy and tighter budgets, could be due to the fact that security has become more affordable, or may mean that businesses are getting smarter about how and on what they spend security dollars.

To come up with a reasonable and effective budget for your business, take another look at your resources list from your security plan and determine the total value of the resources you're protecting.

Figure out how much a security breach can cost you if you don't make that investment. Roughly calculate the value of your ...