The Security Field and Speculating Disaster

It is well-known in both the security market, and the political arena, that sometimes the way to motivate people is to use ‘scare tactics’. That is, discussing what might happen if we don’t take threats or security measures seriously.

Having been in the security business for a while, I often refer to security management as ‘selling earthquake insurance’. It is very difficult to measure the importance of something like insurance or security without painting worst-case scenarios.

There has been a lot of disaster speculation in the news recently with respect to product reverse engineering, data security, and protection of national infrastructure and cyber security. The latest is from a White Paper issued from the Cyber Secure Institute (CSI), authored by Retired General Eugene Habiger and released on Monday. A summary of the report and its criticism of policy inaction was summarized in an interview with General Habiger by SC Magazine. In his White Paper, General Habiger does not shy away from disaster speculation or its most common metaphors, stating explicitly right in the introduction:

“Our failure to proactively address this threat risks a digital Pearl Harbor or 9‐11.”