Providing a secure environment for digital interactions between consumers, firms and public bodies is a fundamental challenge for today's society. 

The Digital Security by Design (DSbD) Open Data Project takes an economic approach to digital security and the related issues of data privacy and competition. 

We study questions such as:

• What drives firms to adopt secure hardware?

• Do markets provide adequate incentives for firms to invest in digital security?

• Do firms’ decisions in the areas of security, privacy and competition interact, and how do these interactions shape the optimal approach to regulation?

Please navigate this site to find out more about our research, our engagement activities, the project team and ways to contact us.

Activities  

• 26 March 2024: Research presentation at the Annual Conference of the Royal  Economic Society, Belfast ("Competition, Data Sharing and Secure Hardware Adoption")

• 15 January 2024: Research seminar presentation at the Competition and Markets Authority ("Competition, Data Sharing and Secure Hardware Adoption")

• 24 November 2023: Research presentation at the Centre for Competition Policy Workshop on UK Digital Economics ("Competition, Data Sharing and Secure Hardware Adoption")

• 31 August 2023: Our final project report into Secure Hardware Adoption in the Open Data Context is now available (see Research)

• 16 May 2023: Presentation at the Ransom & Extortion workshop, De Montfort University, Leicester ("Cyber-Risks and Cyber-Incentives")

• 27 April 2023: Participation in the UK Research & Innovation DSbD Spring Event, London

• 6 April 2023: Our research paper Regulating Data Privacy and Cybersecurity has appeared in the Journal of Industrial Economics (see Research)

• 7 November 2022: Workshop on Secure Hardware Adoption, Data Sharing and the Protection of Personal Data, ESRC Festival of Social Science, Leicester

• 11 October 2022: Participation in the UK Research & Innovation DSbD Autumn Event, Wolverhampton

• 7 April 2022: Participation in the UK Research & Innovation DSbD Spring Event, London 

• 15 July 2021: Online workshop on Competition and Digital Security Regulation

• 3 June 2021: Online workshop on Considerations in the Design of Cybersecurity Policies

• 12 April 2021: Research presentation at the Annual Conference of the Royal  Economic Society ("Regulating Data Privacy and Cybersecurity")