Although a data breach may require that an organization contact the affected parties, it is often less clear whether law enforcement agencies should be contacted after a cyber incident has occurred. One study revealed that only 28 percent of businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) reported a cybercrime to law enforcement agencies.1 In the United States, the FBI estimates that only 15 percent of victims report cybercrimes against them.2 The following reasons are often cited for the reluctance to report cyber incidents to law enforcement agencies:

• Identifying threat actors, especially when attacks come from abroad, is notoriously difficult for domestic law enforcement agencies and often leads to no arrests or convictions.
• While the interest of the organization is to resume operations as quickly as possible, the interest of law enforcement is to identify, track down, and prosecute the perpetrator. This may result in competing interests and could impede the organization from resuming normal operations as law enforcement seeks to retain evidence and launch its own investigation.
• Reporting an incident may make it public knowledge and harm the organization's reputation unnecessarily.

However, there are advantages to reporting a cyber incident:

• Law enforcement agencies can work with foreign counterparts to stop organized cybercrime gangs, which can help reduce the number of overall attacks on a business.
• Large federal law enforcement agencies have extensive resources and experience and can even make the company's own internal investigation easier by having experts at hand.
• Companies that report incidents to law enforcement can help provide information toward intelligence-sharing efforts.
• Many law enforcement agencies emphasize that a business might have the missing piece of a puzzle that can help capture repeat cyber criminals.

Would you contact law enforcement if there were a breach at your place of business? Take your side of this argument and write a response with your answer. PLEASE TYPE AND NO SCREENSHOTS OR PICTURES