Are security experts useful? Bayesian Nash equilibria for network security games with limited information

Benjamin Johnson, Jens Grossklags, Nicolas Christin, John Chuang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

A common assumption in security research is that more individual expertise unambiguously leads to a more secure overall network. We present a game-theoretic model in which this common assumption does not hold. Our findings indicate that expert users can be not only invaluable contributors, but also free-riders, defectors, and narcissistic opportunists. A direct application is that user education needs to highlight the cooperative nature of security, and foster the community sense, in particular, of higher skilled computer users. As a technical contribution, this paper represents, to our knowledge, the first formal study to quantitatively assess the impact of different degrees of information security expertise on the overall security of a network.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputer Security, ESORICS 2010 - 15th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages588-606
Number of pages19
ISBN (Print)3642154964, 9783642154966
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
Event15th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2010 - Athens, Greece
Duration: 20 Sep 201022 Sep 2010

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume6345 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference15th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2010
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityAthens
Period20/09/1022/09/10

Keywords

  • Bounded Rationality
  • Game Theory
  • Limited Information
  • Security Economics

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