Intrusion Detection: Making the Business Case

Abstract

In the current atmosphere of large- scale corporate mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and eliminating redundant operations has become the norm. Couple this with massive one-time expenditures on EMU and the year 2000, the amount spent on mitigating information risk has grown in overall size but has shrunk in the area of data security. Information risk management, a term coined in the early '90s, has had to become leaner and more client-focused, implementing only what is absolutely necessary. This has left IT managers hard-pressed to cost-justify every dollar spent. With IT budgets in the millions and even billions for larger financial services companies, decisions regarding specific technology expenses can have far-reaching implications. Deploying a tool or technology across the enterprise must be thought through carefully in terms of its hard and soft costs and benefits. Thorough analysis up front can mean a faster approval cycle for the product and a more transparent implementation. The key is to present all the analysis in business terms.