A partial equilibrium view on security and privacy

• Published in: Information management & computer security Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 74 - 83
• Main Authors: Katos, Vasilios, Patel, Ahmed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 21-03-2008
• Subjects: Alliances; Business policy; Confidentiality; Data integrity; Data security; Economics; Equilibrium; Interest rates; Macroeconomics; Policy making; Privacy; Security management; Security services; Society; Studies; Data security; Privacy; Business policy
• ISSN: 0968-5227; 2056-4961; 1758-5805; 2056-497X
• DOI: 10.1108/09685220810862760

Purpose - This paper aims to propose a tool to help policy makers understand the dynamic relationships between security and privacy on a strategic (macro) level.Design methodology approach - The methodology is ported from the discipline of Macroeconomics, and applied to the information security and privacy domain. The methodology adopted is the so-called "cross methodology" which claims ownership of the well-known supply demand market equilibrium exercise.Findings - Early evaluation reveals that this is a potentially very effective tool in understanding societal behaviour and position towards information security and privacy and therefore makes this a suitable tool for investigating and exploring scenarios that can assist in policy making.Originality value - Up to date, research on the economics of security and privacy has been primarily focusing on a micro level. The main contribution of this paper is a methodology for investigating privacy and security on a macro level. We believe that our approach in undertaking this research is new and looking at the issues and relationships between security and privacy at a macro level, gives a better understanding of the problems at hand and how to resolve them.Practical implications - The proposed tool may increase the efficiency of policy making and planning as it enables the policy makers on a governmental and strategic level to run scenarios in order to investigate the effect of their decisions (for example, an introduction of a stricter law relating to computer misuse) to the delicate balance of security and privacy.