Calculating Return on Security Investment
To determine our return on security investment (ROSI) we simply subtract what we expect to lose in a year (ALE) from the annual cost of intrusion.
Doing this equation yields the Annual Loss Expectancy.
E is the dollar savings gained by stopping any number of intrusions through the introduction of an intrusion detection tool.
R is the cost per year to recover from any number of intrusions.
(R-E) + T = ALE
R - (ALE) = ROSI
The Earlier You Invest in Security, the Greater the Return
Researchers found that you get a 21% return on your security investment at the software design phase, a 15% return at the implementation stage and a 12% return at the testing stage.
RETURN on security investment
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROCESS
source: MIT/Stanford/@stake
For More Information on the Economics Behind Security
www.digitaleconomist.com
A good primer on economic terms and techniques, including concepts such asindifference curves.
cisac.stanford.edu/docs/soohoo.pdf
Stanford economist Kevin Soo Hoo’s thesis on quantifying infosecurity. It’s a little math-heavy, but it contains excellent data on the history of the problem and a proposed model for fixing it.
www.cert.org
The CERT website has an entire page devoted to emerging research on survivability and the quantification of it. It includes the research highlighted here.
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