Data and methodology --- This is a good example of how swamped we are with various data and analytics about attacks, costs, safety and risks - yet methodologies are often obscure or even missing. You all ask the right question: how was the data collected, where from, by whom, etc.

(Data) Analytics has become a business model for many entities, yet the mere ability to access big data doesn't guarantee a trusted research. As discussed in the cybercrime module, there are numerous estimations of global costs of cybercrime, but they most often lack details about methodology: what crimes are observed, in what population, has the ability to report crime been taken into consideration, how are the costs calculated... While it is useful to get estimations, one should take much of these estimates with reserve.

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu