Information Risk of Inadvertent Disclosure: An Analysis of File-Sharing Risk in the Financial Supply Chain.

Author List: Johnson, M. Eric;

Journal of Management Information Systems, 2008, Volume 25, Issue 2, Page 97-123.

Firms face many different types of information security risk. Inadvertent disclosure of sensitive business information represents one of the largest classes of recent security breaches. We examine a specific instance of this problem--inadvertent disclosures through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. We characterize the extent of the security risk for a group of large financial institutions using a direct analysis of leaked documents. We also characterize the threat of loss by examining search patterns in peer-to-peer networks. Our analysis demonstrates both a substantial threat and vulnerability for large financial firms. We find a statistically significant link between leakage and leak sources including the firm employment base and the number of retail accounts. We also find a link between firm visibility and threat activity. Finally, we find that firms with more leaks also experience increased threat.

Keywords: data breaches; file-sharing; inadvertent disclosure; information security; intellectual property leaks; peer-to-peer networks; risk management

Algorithm:

List of Topics

#168	0.223	firms firm financial services firm's size examine new based result level including results industry important account does suggests characterize limited
#0	0.147	information types different type sources analysis develop used behavior specific conditions consider improve using alternative understanding data available main target
#56	0.111	information security interview threats attacks theory fear vulnerability visibility president vulnerabilities pmt behaviors enforcement appeals protection insiders attackers precautions vice
#186	0.108	security information compliance policy organizations breach disclosure policies deterrence breaches incidents results study abuse managed isp violations based comply protection
#26	0.107	business large organizations using work changing rapidly make today's available designed need increasingly recent manage years activity important allow achieve
#249	0.093	network networks social analysis ties structure p2p exchange externalities individual impact peer-to-peer structural growth centrality participants sharing economic ownership embeddedness
#264	0.073	risk risks management associated managing financial appropriate losses expected future literature reduce loss approach alternative mitigate failures failure cause mitigation