IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/infosf/v22y2020i1d10.1007_s10796-018-9845-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interdependency Analysis in Security Investment against Strategic Attacks

Author

Listed:
  • Mansooreh Ezhei

    (University of Isfahan)

  • Behrouz Tork Ladani

    (University of Isfahan)

Abstract

Information security investment is of high importance in management of IT infrastructure. There are many researches focused on game theoretical modeling and analysis of security investment of interdependent firms against potential security attacks. However, these studies usually are not concerned with dynamic and strategic nature of attacks which are increasingly important features of today’s cyber systems. Strategic attackers are those who are able to substitute their investments among targets over time by shifting investments towards poorly protected targets in order to obtain more potential financial gains. In this paper we try to analyze the effects of interdependency in security investment of firms against strategic attackers. Note that although there are a limited number of works that consider the strategic nature of attack, they model the defenders as a set of isolated nodes. Hence the positive externality caused by interconnection of the firms is not considered in these models. We consider both the attackers’ actual strategic behaviors (that causes negative externality via the possibility of substituting the target) as well as structural effects of the networked firms (that leads to positive externality via attack propagation). We propose a differential game among the networked firms in which attackers act strategically. In the proposed game, by employing a linear substitution model for characterizing the process of target selection by the attacker, the open-loop Nash solutions are highlighted in an analytical form. The analytical results show how interconnectivity between firms and the strategic behavior of the attacker determines the firms’ incentives for security investment. It is shown that overinvestment or underinvestment could occur depending on the degree of interdependency among the given firms. Accordingly we designed mechanisms to encourage the firms to invest at a socially optimal level. The achieved results in this paper helps security designers to better formulate their policies in tackling strategic attackers.

Suggested Citation

  • Mansooreh Ezhei & Behrouz Tork Ladani, 2020. "Interdependency Analysis in Security Investment against Strategic Attacks," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 187-201, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:22:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10796-018-9845-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10796-018-9845-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10796-018-9845-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10796-018-9845-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Xing Gao & Weijun Zhong & Shue Mei, 2013. "Information Security Investment When Hackers Disseminate Knowledge," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 352-368, December.
    2. Kjell Hausken, 2006. "Returns to information security investment: The effect of alternative information security breach functions on optimal investment and sensitivity to vulnerability," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 8(5), pages 338-349, December.
    3. Fang Fang & Manoj Parameswaran & Xia Zhao & Andrew B. Whinston, 2014. "An economic mechanism to manage operational security risks for inter-organizational information systems," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 399-416, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Seyed Alireza Hasheminasab & Behrouz Tork Ladani, 2018. "Security Investment in Contagious Networks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(8), pages 1559-1575, August.
    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. Roozmehr Safi & Glenn J. Browne, 2023. "Detecting Cybersecurity Threats: The Role of the Recency and Risk Compensating Effects," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 1277-1292, June.
    2. Xiaotong Li & Qianyao Xue, 2021. "An economic analysis of information security investment decision making for substitutable enterprises," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 1306-1316, July.
    3. 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.
    4. Tejaswini C. Herath & Hemantha S. B. Herath & David Cullum, 2023. "An Information Security Performance Measurement Tool for Senior Managers: Balanced Scorecard Integration for Security Governance and Control Frameworks," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 681-721, April.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Chul Ho Lee & Xianjun Geng & Srinivasan Raghunathan, 2016. "Mandatory Standards and Organizational Information Security," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 70-86, March.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Alessandro Fedele & Cristian Roner, 2022. "Dangerous games: A literature review on cybersecurity investments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 157-187, February.
    13. Paul, Jomon A. & Zhang, Minjiao, 2021. "Decision support model for cybersecurity risk planning: A two-stage stochastic programming framework featuring firms, government, and attacker," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(1), pages 349-364.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Daniel Schatz & Rabih Bashroush, 0. "Economic valuation for information security investment: a systematic literature review," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    17. Kjell Hausken, 2017. "Security Investment, Hacking, and Information Sharing between Firms and between Hackers," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-23, May.
    18. Guizhou Wang & Jonathan W. Welburn & Kjell Hausken, 2020. "A Two-Period Game Theoretic Model of Zero-Day Attacks with Stockpiling," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-26, December.
    19. Bin Srinidhi & Jia Yan & Giri Kumar Tayi, 2008. "Firm-level Resource Allocation to Information Security in the Presence of Financial Distress," Working Papers 2008-17, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    20. Jaume Belles‐Sampera & Montserrat Guillén & Miguel Santolino, 2014. "Beyond Value‐at‐Risk: GlueVaR Distortion Risk Measures," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(1), pages 121-134, January.

    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:spr:infosf:v:22:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10796-018-9845-8. 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.springer.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.