The Deterrent and Displacement Effects of Information Security Enforcement: International Evidence

We adapt the event study methodology from research in financial economics to study the impact of government enforcement and economic opportunities on information security attacks. We found limited evidence that domestic enforcement deters attacks within the country. However, we found compelling evid...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: PNG, Ivan P. L., WANG, Chen-Yu, QIU-HONG WANG
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/3224
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:We adapt the event study methodology from research in financial economics to study the impact of government enforcement and economic opportunities on information security attacks. We found limited evidence that domestic enforcement deters attacks within the country. However, we found compelling evidence of a displacement effect: U.S. enforcement substantially increases attacks originating from other countries. We also found strong evidence that attackers are economically motivated in that the number of attacks is increasing in the U.S. unemployment rate. Our findings were robust to differences in the effective time window of enforcement and the measurement of vulnerabilities.