Revenue or Expense? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

Security professionals tend to argue for a project in security terms: it will protect the data, it will close a gap. The people who approve the budget, the board, the CEO and the executive team, mostly think in numbers. A business exists to make a profit, and even a non-profit needs money to carry out its mission. Profit is revenue minus expense, so there are only two ways a project can help it: bring more money in, or keep money from going out. Security can do both. On the revenue side, meeting or exceeding what customers demand wins and keeps business, and security that is better than a competitor's is something to advertise. On the expense side, security reduces risk, and like insurance it costs a little now to avoid a much larger cost later: a breach brings cleanup, legal fees, fines and lost time. To sort a pitch, ask where the money moves. Money coming in from customers is revenue. Money not spent on incidents, staff time or premiums is expense.

What you'll learn

Frame a security project for management as raising revenue or cutting expense, since profit is revenue minus expense
Recognize risk reduction as an expense argument, like insurance, and meeting or exceeding customer demands as a revenue argument

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

3.1 Compare and contrast security implications of different architecture models.

Key terms

Risk: The potential for loss or harm resulting from a threat exploiting a vulnerability.
Cost-Benefit Analysis: A financial evaluation method that compares the costs of implementing a solution against the benefits it produces to support decision-making.
Return on Investment: A measure of the financial return gained from an investment, calculated by dividing the net benefit by the cost of the investment, expressed as a percentage.
Multi-Factor Authentication: An authentication method that requires users to provide two or more verification factors to gain access.

Topics

Interactive Streak Sort

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