UMD Smith School of Business Cybersecurity Experts Win Major Homeland Security Grant

College Park, Md. – November 14, 2012 – World-leading cybersecurity researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business won a significant grant from the Department of Homeland Security to develop economic models for cybersecurity investments. Professors Lawrence Gordon and Martin Loeb – along with colleague William Lucyshyn from the School of Public Policy -- received one of just 34 contracts awarded to 29 academic and research institutions for research and development of solutions to cybersecurity challenges. The researchers were awarded two years of funding totaling more than $666,000 to continue their influential stream of cybersecurity economics research.

The DHS Science and Technology Directorate Cyber Security Division awarded the contracts, selected from more than 1,000 grant applicants. The agency’s goal is to improve security in federal networks and across the Internet while developing new and enhanced technologies for detecting, preventing and responding to cyber attacks on the nation’s critical information infrastructure.

Gordon and Loeb have devoted the last nearly 15 years to researching how organizations can best allocate cybersecurity resources. Their renowned Gordon-Loeb Model establishes a framework for cybersecurity investments and has been used by private industry. The researchers will use the new DHS grant to extend their Gordon-Loeb Model to help private sector firms improve their decisions regarding cybersecurity investments. Their work will include case studies and a large questionnaire-based survey of major corporations that own substantial national security related critical infrastructure assets.

Gordon and Loeb’s pioneering research garnered support from National Security Agency from 2000 to 2006, with previous work receiving funding totaling $965,000. That stream of research lead to the duo’s 2005 book, “Managing Cybersecurity Resources: A Cost-Benefit Analysis,” published by McGraw-Hill, and Gordon’s 2007 Congressional testimony on cybersecurity investment in the private sector.