This white paper was written by Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s Vice President for Threat Research. A highly regarded security expert, Alperovitch has won numerous awards, including selection in 2013 as one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35. This first paragraph, with its use of “I” and the references to projects with which Alperovitch is associated, presents him as an expert. The logic is that if he thinks these security threats are credible, you should, too.

Paragraph 2 presents a series of examples of what the writer calls an “unprecedented transfer of wealth.”

Why haven’t we heard more about this transfer of wealth? The writer answers the question using commonsense evidence: we haven’t heard about it because victims of these security attacks keep quiet, fearing that the bad publicity will undermine the public’s trust in them.

The writer presents additional examples of the nature and scope of the attacks. In the rest of the 14-page white paper, he presents statistics and examples describing the 71 attacks that he is calling Operation Shady RAT. The evidence adds up to a compelling argument that the threat is real and serious, and McAfee is the organization you should trust to help you protect yourself from it.