The Very Hungry Defender - Metamorphosing Security Decision-Making by Incorporating Opportunity Cost

Explore the critical role of opportunity cost in transforming information security programs from organizational drags to uplifting forces in this 21-minute conference talk from USENIX Enigma 2023. Delve into the importance of considering foregone benefits of alternative options when making security decisions. Examine cross-disciplinary research on opportunity cost in complex system domains and learn how to evaluate both tangible and intangible costs and effects of defensive options. Discover the negative externalities caused by security investments and understand why "cost" encompasses more than just financial aspects. Gain practical insights from application security examples that demonstrate the essential nature of opportunity cost and the multifaceted concept of "cost" in defensive decision-making.