What's New in the Economics of Cybersecurity?: Observational and Empirical Studies

Massimo Felici, Nick Wainwright, Fabio Bisogni, Simona Cavallini
2015 IEEE Security and Privacy  
N ew developments are substantially increasing our dependence on technologies and services and giving rise to new risks and security challenges that require further investigation of the social, technical, and economic aspects of the cyberworld. On the one hand, e cient and e ective technology bene ts both consumers and providers. On the other hand, new and severe security threats and vulnerabilities might expose consumers and providers to losses and unwanted consequences. In response to the
more » ... ging cybersecurity challenges, spending on information security has grown steadily and might eventually reach a point that's ine cient and una ordable. Furthermore, both governments and market-oriented organizations must carefully balance tradeo s between security and privacy. A be er understanding of these new socio-technical-economic complexities is urgently needed, requiring both reconsideration of traditional cybersecurity issues and investigation of new and unexplored research directions. is special issue on observational and empirical studies together with the forthcoming special issue on the roles of cyberactors and intermediaries highlights research insights that guide the exploration of the economics of cybersecurity. Looking Forward e new style of research and development provides the foundation for what we describe as "laboratories in the economics of cybersecurity," which will explore emerging socio-technicaleconomic issues and challenges. ese laboratories will support multidisciplinary research involving large-scale experiments in the economics of cybersecurity. A collaborative e ort is necessary to address questions that tackle multifaceted cybersecurity economics issues, including the following:
doi:10.1109/msp.2015.105 fatcat:67ftnbdxvfanbgtqinrht7egwy