Our bonus material for this week concerns cyber-security. Recall recent headlines denouncing an alleged hack of Sony’s corporate servers by North Korea? Equally, are you aware of the Stuxnet worm that was specifically designed to spread on the Internet but only affect computers involved in Iran’s nuclear programme?

Disruptions to ICT-based services and processes may have major social consequences, and a disruption to vital services and processes such as critical infrastructures may even lead to social unrest. In the next two web lectures by Prof. Michel van Eeten, we will deal with these challenges. How big are the risks? Do we know what the impacts could be? What are the different types of cybersecurity attacks? What are the policy options?

Prof. van Eeten has worked on critical infrastructure protection issues for over a decade. His work as a policy analyst has included advice for a variety of infrastructure operators and service providers in telecommunications, rail transport, electricity provision, water supply and financial services.

Do you want to know more about the economics of cybersecurity? Then this might be interesting:Professional education in the field of Economics of Cybersecurity offered by edX and DelftX.