Professors Gordon & Loeb Release New Book on Managing Cybersecurity Resources

Stealing from a bank used to involve weapons, getaway cars and high-speed police chases. These days, a criminal can steal from a bank from the comfort of his own home while sitting at his laptop.

Modern bank managers need to protect their assets from both traditional security threats but also from cybersecurity threats. Information security isn’t a problem solely for banks, however—in this age of digital information and interconnected networks, every organization needs to be concerned with cybersecurity.

Lawrence Gordon, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance, and Martin Loeb, professor of accounting and information assurance and Deloitte & Touche LLP Faculty Fellow, address the economics and financial management of cybersecurity resources in a new book, Managing Cybersecurity Resources: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. The book deals with the crucial role economics and financial management issues play in helping to secure cyberspace.

“Many ‘techies’ with little or no business or economics training find themselves managing their organization’s cybersecurity activities,” says Loeb. “Our book gives these managers the necessary economic understanding and financial tools to compete effectively for their organization's resources.”

Gordon and Loeb debunk common myths about cybersecurity, including the myth that cybersecurity activities do not lend themselves to cost-benefit analysis.

“Managers take the attitude, ‘Information security is so important, we should just be given the funds,’” says Gordon. “But companies have finite resources, so any resources given to cybersecurity are in effect taken away from other departments within the company. Our book helps managers who are responsible for securing and allocating cybersecurity funds understand how to make the business case for resources, and then how to use those resources most effectively.”

►Full Story in Smith Business magazine

New Book from Lawrence Lesser

The reactions of business and government to the terrorist attacks of 9.11 and recent corporate misbehavior serve as dual themes for the second edition of Lawrence Lesser's Business, Public Policy, and Society, just published by Thomson.

In response to these twin events, Lawrence M. Lesser, the book's author and LBPP faculty member, describes a new wave of regulatory activity that began with the enactment of two historic but controversial measures–the USA Patriot Act in 2001 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Both laws have global as well as domestic impacts.

The book discusses key provisions of the Patriot Act, which authorized new wiretapping and other powers so that law enforcement authorities can more effectively track the movement and finances of terrorist organizations and individuals. The book also describes how Sarbanes-Oxley increased government regulation of corporate financial reporting, made chief executive officers and chief financial officers of public companies personally responsible for the accuracy of their firms’ financial statements, and imposed criminal penalties for violations.

"Typically, most managers are concerned about the economic impact of government only when it directly affects their business or interferes with their ability to perform their job," Lesser explains. "But now a new paradigm is emerging that requires CEOs and managers not only to understand how governments function, but also how governments arrive at decisions that affect companies on a domestic and global basis."

►Full Story

►Smith School Associate Dean for Professional Programs and Services Scott Koerwer, along with four Smith faculty members, headlined the fall 2005 Zurich MBA Congress earlier this month. The event is organized in the Swiss city twice each year by the Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA), Smith’s European partner in delivering its Global Executive MBA program. The fall 2005 Congress featured a series of workshops delivered by Smith School faculty, including Anand Anandalingam, Ritu Agarwal, Tom Corsi, and Violina Rindova. The event attracted about 800 business executives and community leaders from across Europe, as well as GSBA students.

Koerwer was among the keynote speakers at a GSBA graduation ceremony held in conjunction with the Congress. The commencement was held at Wasserkirche, also known as Water Church. The church got its name because it was surrounded by water when it was built in 1479.

►Faculty members participated in the Global Technology and Management Consortium PhD Symposium hosted by the Smith School this week. Participating schools included the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technoloogy (KAIST); CERAM Sophia Antipolis, France; Delft, The Netherlands; and Groningen, The Netherlands. The Global Technology and Management Consortium (GTMC) is an entity formed by business and engineering schools around the world that are committed to the highest level of education and research. Participating schools emphasize technology, its uses and development as the basis of their educational and differentiation strategies.

►Vinod Jain, senior director for Professional Programs and Services at Smith, is in Orlando right now at the Strategic Management Society's annual conference. He is presenting his paper, "Competing in Central and Eastern Europe: Emerging Trends and Rules of the Game." The paper was published in Poland's American Chamber of Commerce monthly magazine in May 2005. Jain will serve as the chair for his session, "Emerging Markets Strategic Issues," at the conference.

Next Scheduled Segment... Thursday, October 27, 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 28, 6:00 a.m. Sunday, October 30, 11:30 a.m. China’s Emergence Transforms the Business World Entrepreneurship represents a significant cornerstone of the digital economy and the Smith School is bringing this opportunity to help further Chinese-grown ideas and business. This week on Smith Business Close-Up, Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, will discuss how China’s emergence has impacted entrepreneurship here in the greater D.C. area. Smith Business Close-Up can be seen bi-weekly on Maryland Public Television's Business Connection. Watch Asher Epstein on Thursday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, October 28 at 6 a.m., and Sunday, October 30 at 11:30 a.m. on public television stations throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, including: WMPB-TV (Ch. 67), Baltimore WMPT-TV (Ch. 22), DC metro/Annapolis WCPB-TV (Ch. 28), Salisbury WFPT-TV (Ch. 62), Frederick WWPB-TV (Ch. 31), Hagerstown WGPT-TV (Ch. 36), Oakland Have an idea for Smith Business Close-Up? Contact Kathy Marmon at kmarmon@rhsmith.umd.edu (or at ext. 59568) to discuss appearing in an upcoming edition of Smith Business Close-Up and to make suggestions for a future segment.

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