{"id":3036,"date":"2016-01-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otava.test\/whats-the-value-in-continually-investing-in-an-it-security-budget\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:39:23","slug":"whats-the-value-in-continually-investing-in-an-it-security-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otava.com\/blog\/whats-the-value-in-continually-investing-in-an-it-security-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the value in continually investing in an IT security budget?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"risk-assessment_40970559\"Picture this: Your business requires the medical and payment data of three million people, one-third of whom are Medicare recipients. Because of this, you have a big red bullseye painted on your infrastructure and all sorts of seedy characters want access to that information, either for themselves or to sell in the dark underbelly of the internet. \u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d you say, \u201cwe\u2019re protecting that data.\u201d You have a security infrastructure in place, so you figure everything is fine. But how confident are you that the data will NEVER<\/strong> be compromised?<\/p>\n

The answer probably starts with something like \u201cWe have spent \u2013\u201d or \u201cWe have never had a problem with \u2013.\u201d There have been no breaches (to your knowledge) and no real problems brought to your attention.\u00a0 You\u2019ve bought silence. Is it necessary to continually make this investment?<\/p>\n

In the back of your mind, you have a voice telling you that yes, you do need to continually focus on cybersecurity. You know that in the security game, the status quo never stays the same. Cybersecurity is an arms race and it is constantly evolving. Gone are the days when \u201chacker\u201d meant some kid playing on a computer in his mom\u2019s basement. Those kids have grown up to be fully fledged criminal organizations with sophisticated equipment and understanding of the latest technology and exploits. This means companies have to be on the forefront of security, too.<\/p>\n

Hackers only need to succeed once when trying to access your data. Once someone is in, they can alter, destroy, or sell the data (or access to it) to someone with malicious intent.\u00a0 According to Art Villiland, HP\u2019s senior vice president and general manager of enterprise security, breaches on average go undetected for 243 days<\/a>. By then, how much of your data could leave undetected?\u00a0 A lot \u2013at 5 megabits per second over 243 days, 12.8 terabytes could be transferred.<\/p>\n

Your problem is how to convey this to your leadership. They will almost certainly have objections to your sell, with these three being the most common:<\/p>\n