Cybersecurity is a multidimensional problem that demands multidisciplinary attention. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Cyber Risk Economics (CYRIE) project supports research into the business, legal, technical and behavioral aspects of the economics of cyber-threats, vulnerabilities and controls. CYRIE R&D emphasizes empirically based measurement, modeling and evaluation of:
- Investment into cybersecurity controls (technology, regulatory, and legal) by private-sector, government and private actors;
- Impact of investment on the probability, severity and consequences of actual risks and resulting cost and harm;
- Value of the correlation between business performance measures and evaluations of cybersecurity investments and impacts; and
- Incentives to optimize the investments, impacts and value basis of cyber-risk management.
Motivation
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, and Presidential Policy Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. Both are aimed at enhancing the capability of owners and operators of the nation’s…
