The Price of Security: The Challenge of Measuring Business Value Investments in Securing Information Systems

With powerful regulations surrounding security and privacy of information, the authors attempt to identify challenges valuing information security investments. The authors examine three primary approaches to measuring information value: Perceived, Real, and Normative. Literature is reviewed and the approaches are examined in terms of their strengths and weaknesses in providing value measurements for secure information systems. A framework is presented to suggest at what level in an organization and in what situations these information value approaches are most suitable.