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Attacking and Defending Multiple Valuable Secrets in a Big Data World

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  • Kai A. Konrad

Abstract

This paper studies the attack-and-defence game between a web user and a whole set of players over this user’s ‘valuable secrets.’ The number and type of these valuable secrets are the user’s private information. Attempts to tap information as well as privacy protection are costly. The multiplicity of secrets is of strategic value for the holders of these secrets. Users with few secrets keep their secrets private with some probability, even though they do not protect them. Users with many secrets protect their secrets at a cost that is smaller than the value of the secrets protected. The analysis also accounts for multiple redundant information channels with cost asymmetries, relating the analysis to attack-and-defence games with a weakest link.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai A. Konrad, 2019. "Attacking and Defending Multiple Valuable Secrets in a Big Data World," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2019-05, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2019-05
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bose, Gautam & Konrad, Kai A., 2020. "Devil take the hindmost: Deflecting attacks to other defenders," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    3. Welburn, Jonathan & Grana, Justin & Schwindt, Karen, 2023. "Cyber deterrence with imperfect attribution and unverifiable signaling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(3), pages 1399-1416.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    OR in societal problem analysis; big-data; privacy; web user; conflict; information rents; valuable secrets; attack-and-defence; multiple attackers; multiple defence items; multi-front contest.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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