Motivating Security Engineering with Economics: A Utility Function Approach

Establishing the correct mix of functionality and security is key to developing resilient systems, an imbalance will result in system failure, either in system objective or at the hands of an adversary. We present a methodology for reasoning about secure design using economic expressions. We employ Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) devices and the IEEE 802.15.4 specification to demonstrate how a utility-based representation can be used to analyse these competing concerns, leading to designs that can be optimised to meet resiliency objectives.