Thank you for picking up this book! We believe that if you are reading this page, you are an individual seeking to gain a greater degree of familiarity with cybercrime and espionage, and more likely than not, believe that the realities outweigh the fear, uncertainty, and doubt associated with these two topics. Our desire in writing this book was to initiate a conversation pertaining to the subject matter from a different perspective. Given that both of the authors have backgrounds with the Department of Defense (DoD), intelligence community, and the commercial information security industry, we felt it appropriate to begin asking tough questions while providing answers to nontrivial challenges. This is not a work of fiction. It is our belief that this book will aid in changing the perception of cybercrime and espionage by joining the ranks of books written on the topic while, at same time, approaching the subject matter with a fresh perspective. We set out to achieve a goal and believe that we have achieved the first of many milestones in total goal attainment. This book has proven to be challenging to write as it has challenged us to reconsider our beliefs, perspectives, opinions, and experiences and approach them and the project with an independent perspective. A great deal of work was spent corroborating facts and figures, as standard bodies for this area of study do not exist. Making matters more complex was the challenge of redefining “loss” with respect to our industry in addition to properly defining totals as they pertain to frequency of occurrence and dollars spent or made perpetuating events of interest the likes of which are discussed within this work. We believe that we are just scraping the tip of the iceberg with this book and have no doubts as to the need for further expansion and definition. We knew in beginning of this project that the volume of material to be discussed was great and that it would be difficult, to say the very least, to address every aspect (doing them justice) in gross detail in a single installatment. As a result, we view this as a stepping-stone in our journey to explore this area of study in greater detail and assert that the journey has just begun.
Best regards,
October 18, 2010