Haruki Murakami had running on his mind when he wrote, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” For many in cybersecurity, the inevitability of painful security issues is followed by the suffering of finding the right language to fully describe the consequences. The question is whether there are accurate ways to talk about security pain without restricting the language to “dollars lost” and “records exposed.”
When cybersecurity experts are asked whether dollars and records are enough to paint a full picture of the pain a breach or cyberattack inflicts, most say “no.” Coming up with a consistent set of alternatives, though, is challenging.
