An Analytical Approach to the Adoption of Asymmetric Bidirectional Firewalls: Need for Regulation?

摘要

Recent incidents of cybersecurity violations have revealed the importance ofhaving firewalls and other intrusion detection systems to monitor trafficentering and leaving access networks. But the adoption of such securitymeasures is often stymied by `free-riding' effects and `shortsightedness' amongInternet service providers (ISPs). In this work, we develop an analyticalframework that not only accounts for these issues but also incorporatestechnological factors, like asymmetries in the performance of bidirectionalfirewalls. Results on the equilibrium adoption and stability are presented,along with detailed analysis on several policy issues related to socialwelfare, price of anarchy, and price of shortsightedness.