Economics of Vulnerability Disclosure

Erik Silfversten, William D. Phillips, Giacomo Persi Paoli, Cosmin Ciobanu

ResearchPosted on rand.org Dec 14, 2018Published in: The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) (2018). doi: 10.2824/49807

Vulnerability disclosure refers to the process of identifying, reporting and patching weaknesses of software, hardware or services that can be exploited. The different actors within a vulnerability disclosure process are subject to a range of economic considerations and incentives that may influence their behaviour. These economic aspects of vulnerability disclosure are often overlooked and poorly understood, but may help explain why some vulnerabilities are disclosed responsibly while others are not. This study serves as a follow up to the 2015 ENISA Good Practice Guide on Vulnerability Disclosure and has the overarching objective to improve the understanding of the economics of vulnerability disclosure by providing a glimpse into the costs, incentives and impact related to discovering and disclosing vulnerabilities.

Read More

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA)
  • Availability: Non-RAND
  • Year: 2018
  • Pages: 74
  • Document Number: EP-67755

Research conducted by

This publication is part of the RAND external publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.