[65163] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: FW: Cost of Worm Attack Protection
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Thomas)
Thu Nov 13 16:00:26 2003
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 14:56:20 -0600 (CST)
From: Rob Thomas <robt@cymru.com>
To: NANOG <nanog@merit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0311131534220.26910-100000@clifden.donelan.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Hi, NANOGers.
] The old saying of "you get what you pay for" seems to be well directed when
] it comes to this topic. If you're willing to allocate $100K more than you
] currently spend to mitigating the effects from Worms and Viruses, I'm sure
] you will have some increased success. If you allocate 1 mill more, your
] success will increase substantially. The true cost really boils down to
This sort of thinking, unsupported by any data, runs rampant in
the security industry. I have yet to see anyone document the
ROI on security tools and services. Do they help at all? Does
an increase in security spending result in a decrease in pain?
In some cases, as already documented here, an increase in
security measures can actually increases costs.
Let's not fall into the trap that more $$$ equates to greater
security or awareness. I've seen many sites that installed
numerous pods of the latest IDS at their borders, only to be
owned from within or owned by a method not yet in the
ever-behind signature database of the IDS devices. One can
waste money on security just as easily as one can waste money
on anything else.
Thanks,
Rob.
--
Rob Thomas
http://www.cymru.com
ASSERT(coffee != empty);
