http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/econws.html
Workshop on Economics and Information Security University of California, Berkeley May 16-17, 2002 Do we spend enough on keeping `hackers' out of our computer systems? Do we not spend enough? Or do we spend too much? Many system security failures occur not so much for technical reasons but because of failures of organisation and motivation. For example, the person or company best placed to protect a system may be insufficiently motivated to do so, because the costs of system failure fall on others. Such perverse incentives raise many issues best discussed using economic concepts such as externalities, asymmetric information, adverse selection and moral hazard. They are becoming increasingly important now that information security mechanisms are not merely used to protect against malicious attacks, but also to protect monopolies, differentiate products and segment markets. There are also interesting security issues raised by industry monopolization and the accompanying reduction in product heterogenity. For these and other reasons, the confluence between information security and economics is of growing importance. We are organising the first workshop on the topic, to be held in the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California, Berkeley, on the 16th and 17th May 2002. In order to keep the event informal and interactive, attendance will be limited to about 30-35 participants. If you would like to participate, please send us a position paper (of 1-2 pages) by the 31st March 2002. We welcome interest not just from economists and information security professionals, but from people with relevant experience, such as in the insurance industry, corporate risk management, or law enforcement agencies. Program committee: * Hal Varian (program co-chair) * Ross Anderson (program co-chair) * Doug Tygar (general chair) * Jean Camp * Li Gong * Larry Gordon * Marty Loeb * Andrew Odlyzko * Bruce Schneier Position papers and expressions of interest should be sent to either co-chair - Hal Varian [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Ross Anderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]