In the past two years, companies all over the world spent $157 billion on information security products. For comparison, the total expenses of the state government of New York amounted to $150.7 billion in 2016.

Just for our amusement, let’s imagine a silver bullet with a cost comparable to information security expenses. It would weigh 302.5 tons since silver costs $515.70 per kilogram (actual price on the day this article was written)! Therefore, it is either a really heavy bullet the size of a 10-story building, or it isn’t made of silver. I could continue hypothesizing about potential raw materials for such a bullet, but I’d rather discuss the reasons behind such a state of affairs.

In short, it is unclear what needs to be protected and from what. I will elaborate on these two problems.