Economic Factors of Vulnerability Trade and Exploitation

Cybercrime markets support the development and diffusion of new attack technologies, vulnerability exploits, and malware. Whereas the revenue streams of cyber attackers have been studied multiple times in the literature, no quantitative account currently exists on the economics of attack acquisition and deployment. Yet, this understanding is critical to characterize the production of (traded) exploits, the economy that drives it, and its effects on the overall attack scenario. In this paper we provide an empirical investigation of the economics of vulnerability exploitation, and the effects of market factors on likelihood of exploit. Our data is collected first-handedly from a prominent Russian cybercrime market where the trading of the most active attack tools reported by the security industry happens. Our findings reveal that exploits in the underground are priced similarly or above vulnerabilities in legitimate bug-hunting programs, and that the refresh cycle of exploits is slower than currently often assumed. On the other hand, cybercriminals are becoming faster at introducing selected vulnerabilities, and the market is in clear expansion both in terms of players, traded exploits, and exploit pricing. We then evaluate the effects of these market variables on likelihood of attack realization, and find strong evidence of the correlation between market activity and exploit deployment. We discuss implications on vulnerability metrics, economics, and exploit measurement.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 14 table

Quantitative relations between corruption and economic factors

We report quantitative relations between corruption level and economic factors, such as country wealth and foreign investment per capita, which are characterized by a power law spanning multiple scales of wealth and investments per capita. These relations hold for diverse countries, and also remain stable over different time periods. We also observe a negative correlation between level of corruption and long-term economic growth. We find similar results for two independent indices of corruption, suggesting that the relation between corruption and wealth does not depend on the specific measure of corruption. The functional relations we report have implications when assessing the relative level of corruption for two countries with comparable wealth, and for quantifying the impact of corruption on economic growth and foreign investments.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Trade Policy: 'Political' vs. 'Economic' Factors

The ongoing discussion of U.S.-Japanese trade relations suggests that national differences such as in the institutional environment may be relevant for assessing international trade policies. However, economic trade theory often assumes countries to be organized around common notions of complete markets. This paper compares two alternative modes of trade policy analysis by juxtaposing the ?economic? view inherent in Gene Grossman?s work on ?Japan?s Innovation and Trade? with the ?political? view of ?Japanese-American Relations? expressed by Chalmers Johnson. A synthesis is attempted with the help of some remarks on ?New Trade Theory?s Implications for Policy Analysis? by John Pomery. --trade theory,policy,institutional factors

Trade policy: 'institutional' vs. 'economic' factors

The ongoing discussion of U.S.-Japanese trade relations suggests that national differences such as in the institutional environment may be relevant for assessing international trade policies. However, economic trade theory often assumes countries to be organized around common notions of complete markets. This paper compares two alternative modes of trade policy analysis by juxtaposing the “economic” view inherent in Gene Grossman’s work on “Japan’s Innovation and Trade” with the “political” view of “Japanese-American Relations” expressed by Chalmers Johnson. A synthesis is attempted with the help of some remarks on “New Trade Theory’s Implications for Policy Analysis” by John Pomery. --trade theory,policy,institutional factors

Racial and economic factors in attitudes to immigration

In this paper we distinguish between three channels that determine attitudes to further immigration: labour market concerns, welfare concerns, and racial or cultural concerns. Our analysis is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey. A unique feature of the survey is that it includes questions on attitudes towards immigration from different origin countries, with populations differing in ethnic similarity to the resident population. It also contains sets of questions relating directly to the labour market, benefit expenditure and welfare concerns, and racial and cultural prejudice. Based on this unique data source, we specify and estimate a multiple factor model that allows comparison of the relative magnitude of association of attitudes to further immigration with the three channels, as well as comparison in responses across potential immigrant groups of different origin. Our results suggest that, overall, welfare concerns play a more important role in determination of attitudes to further immigration than labour market concerns, with their relative magnitude differing across potential emigration regions and characteristics of the respondent. In addition, we find strong evidence that racial or cultural prejudice is an important component to attitudes towards immigration; however, this is restricted to immigration from countries with ethnically different populations

Analysis of Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Fish Marketing in Igbokoda Fish Market, Ondo State, Nigeria

The study analyzed the socio-economic factors affecting fish marketing in Igbokoda fish market, Ondo State, Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was used in selection of the respondents. Sample size comprised eighty fish marketing households. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Results revealed that fish marketing in the area is dominated by females (88.7%). Majority (91.3%) were married with an average household size of 7 persons. Marketers earned an average income of N60, 000 per month. Majority (71.3%) do not belong to cooperative societies, 46.3% of the marketers have an average of 16.5 years of experience. Findings also revealed that fish marketing is efficient and lucrative in the area. However, constraints faced by the marketers include; inadequate storage facilities, price instability, inadequate capital, lack of access to credit, distance to market among others. It was therefore recommended that effective agricultural policies and programs should address marketers' easy access to credits, infrastructural facilities such as good storage and processing facilities, electrification, good feeder roads should be provided in the area to reduce spoilage and unprofitable sales

Deterministic Factors of Stock Networks based on Cross-correlation in Financial Market

The stock market has been known to form homogeneous stock groups with a higher correlation among different stocks according to common economic factors that influence individual stocks. We investigate the role of common economic factors in the market in the formation of stock networks, using the arbitrage pricing model reflecting essential properties of common economic factors. We find that the degree of consistency between real and model stock networks increases as additional common economic factors are incorporated into our model. Furthermore, we find that individual stocks with a large number of links to other stocks in a network are more highly correlated with common economic factors than those with a small number of links. This suggests that common economic factors in the stock market can be understood in terms of deterministic factors.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur