Sandler and his colleagues conducted an analysis of the costs and benefits of five different approaches to combating terrorism. I must warn you that, because of the dearth of information, this study is even more reliant on assumptions than usual. Even so, in three cases the cost of the action so far exceeds the benefits that doubts about the reliability of the estimates recede.

Because the loss of life is so low, they measure the benefits of successful counter-terrorism measures in terms of loss of gross domestic product avoided. Trouble is, terrorism does little to disrupt economic growth, as even September 11 demonstrated.

Using the case of the US, Sandler estimates that simply continuing the present measures involves costs exceeding benefits by a factor of at least 10. Adopting additional defensive measures (such as stepping up security at valuable targets) would, at best, entail costs 3.5 times the benefits. Taking more pro-active measures (such as invading Afghanistan) would have costs at least eight times the benefits.

According to Sandler, only greater international co-operation, or adopting more sensitive foreign policies to project a more positive image abroad, could produce benefits greater than their (minimal) costs.

What's that? You don't care what it costs because no one can put a value on saving a human life? Heard of opportunity cost? Taxpayers' money we waste on excessive counter-terrorism measures is money we can't spend reducing the gap between white and indigenous health -- or, if that doesn't appeal, on buying Olympic medals.

It all started with the loss of a memory stick by a UK Government contractor which contained somewhere around 120,000 records, including the details of 10,000 of our nation's most serious criminals. We then heard about a compromise at global hotel chain Best Western...]]> Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000 global hotel chain olympic sport summer vacation pole position data government contractor medals table memory stick nation If there were gold medals for Data Leakage... http://securityratty.com/article/bcfdf7b736bd81a9da26fde006e8fb19 http://securityratty.com/article/bcfdf7b736bd81a9da26fde006e8fb19 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000 infects computer systems enterprise security firm e-mails malware secure form storm beware Security firm warns against Olympic spam http://securityratty.com/article/521803b211c770ce0b4a7b7b1af84cfa http://securityratty.com/article/521803b211c770ce0b4a7b7b1af84cfa Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000 games olympic games web sites spammers product sites symantec e-mails malware users Spammers leverage interest in Olympics http://securityratty.com/article/5af7700d89b7b7252d3ccfa486318a90 http://securityratty.com/article/5af7700d89b7b7252d3ccfa486318a90 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000 web sites fight piracy top olympic material china government tuesday Top China Web sites join to fight Olympic piracy http://securityratty.com/article/28fe52f3c075902c10a853e9765300e5 http://securityratty.com/article/28fe52f3c075902c10a853e9765300e5 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:49:26 +0000 fake ticket lottery olympics website web site websense games hype time hostname rogue Beijing Olympics Lottery Phishers Verify Their Victims http://securityratty.com/article/173052b671e63922d7f5b581f4f73dfe http://securityratty.com/article/173052b671e63922d7f5b581f4f73dfe