Meteors and managers
Bill Boni · Network Security · 2000
The current state of Internet and E-commerce safeguards is a confusing melange of technical safeguards that work, more or less. Difficult as it is to make them work together, they can be effective in managing risks if they are implemented. However, at present many security professionals find it difficult, in spite of the post Y2K awareness of senior executives, to get sufficient investment for safeguards for electronic business systems. It seems that for every manager who appreciates the significance of media reports of a successful hack against prominent Web business sites, there are two others who have not seen the point yet, who subscribe to the “meteor strike” theory of risk management (i.e. “never seen a meteor strike anyone I know”), and who thus need to be educated about the risks arising from E-commerce before they will make an adequate investment in security.