IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v65y2014i11p1682-1691.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A game-theoretic analysis of information sharing and security investment for complementary firms

Author

Listed:
  • Xing Gao

    (Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China)

  • Weijun Zhong

    (Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China)

  • Shue Mei

    (Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China)

Abstract

This paper investigates information sharing and security investments by two firms provided that their information assets are complementary in the sense that their combined information assets are of significant value, whereas the information asset of a single firm is no value to an attacker. In particular, assuming that each firm chooses its security investment and information sharing individually, we obtain some insights about the optimal choices for the firms and the attacker, which form sharp comparisons with those derived from common (substitutive) firms. We further analyse the effect of a social planner on social total costs by assuming that it can control security investments, information sharing and both of them respectively. We demonstrate that an increase in intervention by the social planner may not necessarily be preferable.

Suggested Citation

  • Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong & Shue Mei, 2014. "A game-theoretic analysis of information sharing and security investment for complementary firms," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 65(11), pages 1682-1691, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:65:y:2014:i:11:p:1682-1691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v65/n11/pdf/jors2013133a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v65/n11/full/jors2013133a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huang, C. Derrick & Behara, Ravi S., 2013. "Economics of information security investment in the case of concurrent heterogeneous attacks with budget constraints," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 255-268.
    2. Hausken, Kjell & Bier, Vicki M., 2011. "Defending against multiple different attackers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 370-384, June.
    3. Hausken, Kjell, 2008. "Whether to attack a terrorist's resource stock today or tomorrow," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 548-564, November.
    4. Kjell Hausken & Jun Zhuang, 2011. "Defending Against a Stockpiling Terrorist," The Engineering Economist, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 321-353.
    5. Stergios Skaperdas, 1996. "Contest success functions (*)," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 7(2), pages 283-290.
    6. Esther Gal-Or & Anindya Ghose, 2005. "The Economic Incentives for Sharing Security Information," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 186-208, June.
    7. Hausken, Kjell, 2006. "Income, interdependence, and substitution effects affecting incentives for security investment," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 629-665.
    8. Gordon, Lawrence A. & Loeb, Martin P. & Lucyshyn, William, 2003. "Sharing information on computer systems security: An economic analysis," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 461-485.
    9. G Levitin & K Hausken, 2010. "Defence and attack of systems with variable attacker system structure detection probability," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(1), pages 124-133, January.
    10. Sam Ransbotham & Sabyasachi Mitra, 2009. "Choice and Chance: A Conceptual Model of Paths to Information Security Compromise," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 121-139, March.
    11. Hausken, Kjell, 2007. "Information sharing among firms and cyber attacks," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 639-688.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kjell Hausken, 2017. "Information Sharing Among Cyber Hackers in Successive Attacks," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 1-33, June.
    2. Guang Zhu & Hu Liu & Mining Feng, 2018. "An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach for Assessing Privacy Protection in mHealth Systems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-27, October.
    3. Schilling, Andreas & Werners, Brigitte, 2016. "Optimal selection of IT security safeguards from an existing knowledge base," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(1), pages 318-327.
    4. Yong Wu & Gengzhong Feng & Richard Y. K. Fung, 2018. "Comparison of information security decisions under different security and business environments," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(5), pages 747-761, May.
    5. Guang Zhu & Hu Liu & Mining Feng, 2018. "Sustainability of Information Security Investment in Online Social Networks: An Evolutionary Game-Theoretic Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Yan Cheng & Shue Mei & Weijun Zhong & Xing Gao, 2023. "Managing consumer privacy risk: The effects of privacy breach insurance," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 807-841, June.
    7. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2015. "Information security investment for competitive firms with hacker behavior and security requirements," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 235(1), pages 277-300, December.
    8. Xiaofei Qian & Jun Pei & Xinbao Liu & Mi Zhou & Panos M. Pardalos, 2019. "Information security decisions for two firms in a market with different types of customers," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 1263-1285, November.
    9. Meilin He & Laura Devine & Jun Zhuang, 2018. "Perspectives on Cybersecurity Information Sharing among Multiple Stakeholders Using a Decision‐Theoretic Approach," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 215-225, February.
    10. Xinbao Liu & Xiaofei Qian & Jun Pei & Panos M. Pardalos, 2018. "Security investment and information sharing in the market of complementary firms: impact of complementarity degree and industry size," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 413-436, February.
    11. Yong Wu & Mengyao Xu & Dong Cheng & Tao Dai, 2022. "Information Security Strategies for Information-Sharing Firms Considering a Strategic Hacker," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 99-122, June.
    12. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2016. "A differential game approach to security investment and information sharing in a competitive environment," IISE Transactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 511-526, June.
    13. Xiaotong Li, 2022. "An evolutionary game‐theoretic analysis of enterprise information security investment based on information sharing platform," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 595-606, April.
    14. Xiaofei Qian & Xinbao Liu & Jun Pei & Panos M. Pardalos & Lin Liu, 2017. "A game-theoretic analysis of information security investment for multiple firms in a network," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(10), pages 1290-1305, October.
    15. Kjell Hausken, 2017. "Security Investment, Hacking, and Information Sharing between Firms and between Hackers," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-23, May.
    16. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2016. "Economic incentives in security information sharing: the effects of market structures," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 361-377, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hausken, Kjell, 2024. "Fifty Years of Operations Research in Defense," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 318(2), pages 355-368.
    2. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2016. "A differential game approach to security investment and information sharing in a competitive environment," IISE Transactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 511-526, June.
    3. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong & Shue Mei, 2013. "Information Security Investment When Hackers Disseminate Knowledge," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 352-368, December.
    4. Kjell Hausken, 2017. "Security Investment, Hacking, and Information Sharing between Firms and between Hackers," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Kjell Hausken, 2018. "Proactivity and Retroactivity of Firms and Information Sharing of Hackers," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-30, March.
    6. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2016. "Economic incentives in security information sharing: the effects of market structures," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 361-377, December.
    7. Kjell Hausken, 2017. "Information Sharing Among Cyber Hackers in Successive Attacks," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 1-33, June.
    8. Yosra Miaoui & Noureddine Boudriga, 2019. "Enterprise security investment through time when facing different types of vulnerabilities," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 261-300, April.
    9. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong & Shue Mei, 2015. "Security investment and information sharing under an alternative security breach probability function," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 423-438, April.
    10. Yosra Miaoui & Noureddine Boudriga, 0. "Enterprise security investment through time when facing different types of vulnerabilities," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-40.
    11. Daniel Schatz & Rabih Bashroush, 0. "Economic valuation for information security investment: a systematic literature review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    12. Levitin, Gregory & Hausken, Kjell & Taboada, Heidi A. & Coit, David W., 2012. "Data survivability vs. security in information systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 19-27.
    13. Yong Wu & Mengyao Xu & Dong Cheng & Tao Dai, 2022. "Information Security Strategies for Information-Sharing Firms Considering a Strategic Hacker," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 99-122, June.
    14. Daniel Schatz & Rabih Bashroush, 2017. "Economic valuation for information security investment: a systematic literature review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(5), pages 1205-1228, October.
    15. Ye, Zhi-Sheng & Peng, Rui & Wang, Wenbin, 2017. "Defense and attack of performance-sharing common bus systemsAuthor-Name: Zhai, Qingqing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 962-975.
    16. Meilin He & Laura Devine & Jun Zhuang, 2018. "Perspectives on Cybersecurity Information Sharing among Multiple Stakeholders Using a Decision‐Theoretic Approach," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 215-225, February.
    17. Xinbao Liu & Xiaofei Qian & Jun Pei & Panos M. Pardalos, 2018. "Security investment and information sharing in the market of complementary firms: impact of complementarity degree and industry size," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 413-436, February.
    18. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong, 2015. "Information security investment for competitive firms with hacker behavior and security requirements," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 235(1), pages 277-300, December.
    19. Hausken, Kjell, 2008. "Strategic defense and attack for series and parallel reliability systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(2), pages 856-881, April.
    20. Kjell Hausken & Jonathan W. Welburn & Jun Zhuang, 2024. "A Review of Attacker–Defender Games and Cyber Security," Games, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-27, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:65:y:2014:i:11:p:1682-1691. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.