Why Internet Security is hard, part CXLII

It's hard to quantify risk of loss, in direct contrast to other parts of the business:

Taiwan consumer regulators have ordered Dell to honor an online pricing error that offered 19-inch LCD monitors for only NT$500 (US$15, £9).

News of the supposed bargain spread quickly over the internet when it was posted June 25 at 11pm. Within the eight hours before it was removed, more than 26,000 customers placed orders for nearly 140,000 monitors, according to Taiwan's Consumer Protection Commission.

That's about $2M right there, from a business process screw-up that let bad data get into the sales system. Not a lot computer breaches that have been that big. Some, but not a lot.

The result is that it's a lot harder to get budget for security than for other things.