For those of you who follow my coverage of all things relating to cyber attacks, you know my concern is not just about the breaches themselves and the threats they create. It is also about what they can cost in terms of time, trust and money. In fact, back in July I wrote a detailed article about McAfee’s (News - Alert) work with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which produced the first extensive analysis of the impact such attacks have monetarily. “Estimating the Cost of Cybercrime and Cyber Espionage” was the result of the collaboration.  

As noted when the report came out, this was an eye-opener. The researchers estimated a $100 billion annual loss to the U.S. economy and as many as 508,000 U.S. jobs lost as a result of malicious cyber activities. 

Those are big numbers to digest in one sitting. And, while they may be a bit off based on the values of the variables used in the calculations, the facts are that they are more than directionally correct, and there is reason to believe they may actually be a bit conservative. As all of the recent headlines have noted, with an almost frightening acceleration at which cyber mayhem is happening and the ratcheting up of the sophistication of the attackers, the cost in terms of money is enormous. In addition, the uncalculated cost of potential lost of trust in online activities could create a multiplier effect of dire proportions. 

 What the report only touched on is what organizations need to do to mitigate the risks caused by this increase in malicious behavior. 

It is rare these days to have the opportunity to listen to the experts on this subject and be able to not only hear but also ask questions of them regarding the size of the problem and recommendations about best practices to protect your organization. For this reason, a webinar, titled The Cost of a Security Breach - What can it cost you?, to be held Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 12:00pm EDT/ 9:00am PDT is one not to miss. 

You are invited to join me and Greg McHugh, senior sales engineer, SaaS Email & Web Security, McAfee, Joel Stidley, partner technology strategist, Microsoft (News - Alert), and Michelle Yuenger,manager, Cloud Applications Product Management, savvisdirect, a CenturyLink company, as we discuss:  

• The cost of a security breach
• What to safeguard to ensure your company is protected
• How you can use easily accessible cloud applications to prevent a breach

As the headlines and the McAfee report have demonstrated, and as reports about an increase in IT spending on security reflect, securing the enterprise has become job #1 for IT professionals around the world. However, there are real challenges in terms of what to protect when, why and how. There is also growing interest, despite early skepticism about its security, as to why the cloud can help you protect mission-critical information from getting into the hands of those who wish you harm.

This is about having the visibility and control to be both proactive and reactive in managing the risks/costs of not being ready for a cyber attack. It is about having the right protection for not just stored data but data on the fly and leveraging the power of the cloud for that protection. As our presenters will highlight, cloud-enabled solutions can help thwart malicious cyber threats and protect your valuable data, email and other information. And, these types of security and backup solutions can be leveraged even if you've never used Security as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) apps before.