The Impact of Virus Attack Announcements on the Market Value of Firms
Anat Hovav, John D’Arcy · Information Systems Security · 2004
This paper reports the impact of virus attack announcements on the market value of affected companies over a period of 15 years. Information Systems (IS) risk is a top concern for organizations.1 These concerns are due to the fact that the consequence of a security breach can be detrimental to a company's financial performance.2 Thus, security strategies revolve around the act of a security breach (or an attempt at one) and the need to minimize the financial loss resulting from such a breach. Gordon et al.3 proposed a framework to manage cyber-risk. The antecedent activities include the assessment of the risk involved in a security breach. Subsequent steps involve the preventive measures necessary to avert such an attempt. These measures are divided into technical or procedural measures (i.e., access control, firewalls) and financial measures (such as buying cyber insurance). The final step entails the maintenance of an accepted level of risk.