Cybersecurity Issues and the Social Behavioral Economic Sciences

Cybersecurity Issues and the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences David C. Croson, Ph. D. Office of the Assistant Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences National Science Foundation dcroson@nsf. gov George Mason University, June 2011

Cybersecurity Interest at SBE • The Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation focuses on human behavior and the actions of groups and organizations. • SBE has begun looking at cybersecurity issues – Main goal: advancing the underlying social science supporting cybersecurity solutions • No active solicitations or Dear Colleague Letters specific to Cybersecurity at this time. • Encourage proposals to existing programs: http: //1. usa. gov/NSFSBE – – Disciplinary: Political Science, Economics, Sociology Sci. SIP (Science of Science & Innovation Policy) IOS (Innovation & Organizational Sciences) DRMS (Decision, Risk, & Management Science)

NSF’s Goal: Through Collaboration, Advance Underlying Science • Cybersecurity combines new technology with both old & new social science – Problems of incentive alignment, efficient risk bearing, and interdependent security are studied in economics – Federations and security alliances evoke sociology and political science – Information overload and display techniques, as well as protecting against social engineering, combine psychology with cognitive science – NSF’s focus: advancing underlying scientific bases of cybersecurity issues • At Internet 2 meeting (Oct 2011 in Raleigh, NC), session on SBE funding sources for cybersecurity research, followed by an open discussion on – collaboration among IT/CS/engineering faculty and social scientists – integrating social-science research knowledge into practical cybersecurity issues (including those funded outside SBE) – identifying truly transformative ideas supporting future research opportunities that meld disciplinary knowledge from multiple fields