The Economics of Information Security

Presented at Notacon 2 (2005), April 10, 2005, 10 a.m. (60 minutes).

Computer and Information security has become a major topic in recent times due to a rash of well-publicized attacks. Most of the new ideas in this area are very technical ideas that attempt to design new technologies to combat this problem. But the problem is fundamentally a social problem, where rational people are choosing to attack for various reasons. In the past few years a growing community of researchers has began studying this problem in its larger context. I will discuss a number of the new ideas that have arisen from this community, including both new techniques for security that incorporate social science ideas and new ways of looking at and understanding the problem. Then I will attempt to synthesize a coherent picture of this larger perspective on security.


Presenters:

  • Rick Wash
    Rick Wash is currently a PhD student at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. His research interests include understanding incentive structures. He currently studies the economics of information security systems in order to design better security systems. He also studies the incentives of semi-structured UI systems, with the goal of promoting better adaptive use of computer systems and messaging.

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