World Bank Taps Smith Research, Expertise for ‘Cybersecurity Economics for Emerging Markets’

The World Bank Group’s recently released “Cybersecurity Economics for Emerging Markets” draws from four studies produced by faculty in the Accounting and Information Assurance Department of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The book delves into the drivers and consequences of cyber incidents worldwide, followed by proactive roles that private market players and governments can assume in emerging markets to safeguard infrastructure in cyberspace effectively. The latter is informed by work co-authored by Smith’s Lawrence A. Gordon, Martin Loeb and Lei Zhou:

“The Economics of Information Security Investment” (2002) in ACM Transactions on Information and System Security by Gordon and Loeb introduced the seminal Gordon-Loeb Model for Cybersecurity Investments.

“The Economic Cost of Publicly Announced Information Security Breaches: Empirical Evidence from the Stock Market” was co-authored with Zhou and published the following year in the Journal of Computer Security.

“Sharing Information on Computer Systems Security: An Economic Analysis” (2003) in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and 2014’s “Cybersecurity Investments in the Private Sector: The Role of Governments," in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, are co-authored by Gordon and Loeb with William Lucyshyn, research professor and director of research for UMD’s Center for Governance of Technology and Systems.

“The (World Bank Group’s) book is a research study covering approximately 30,000 cyber incidents in 179 countries from 2017 to 2022—probably the largest and broadest study on cyber incidents,” says Gordon, Smith’s EY Alumni Professor of Managerial Accounting and Information Assurance and one of the external peer reviewers of the book.

Gordon met multiple times with the World Bank research team to contribute his insights regarding the design, execution and final composition of the project. The collaboration culminated with him and Loeb, professor and Deloitte & Touche Faculty Fellow, joining in a final meeting earlier this fall to launch the book.

The book is fully accessible via The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository.

Related: “Amid Divisive Politics, Cybersecurity Endures as a Bipartisan Priority” (Gordon’s recent op-ed at FinTecBuzz) and “SEC Cites Smith Research (by Gordon, Loeb and Zhou) in New Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules for Public Companies” (2023).