Transcript Cybersecurity Interest at SBE

Cybersecurity Issues and the Social,
Behavioral & Economic Sciences
David C. Croson, Ph.D.
Office of the Assistant Director
Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
National Science Foundation
[email protected]
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
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Disciplinary: Political Science, Economics, Sociology
SciSIP (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 Internet2 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