Two researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Susanne Wetzel and Dr. Thomas Lechler, were awarded a $144,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct a two-year study on information security management. The study will take an interdisciplinary approach combining computer science and technology management expertise. The goal is to develop a new framework to optimize information security and productivity in complex systems involving multiple partners exchanging data, like hospitals sharing patient information with insurance companies and government databases. The research has the potential for significant practical and theoretical impacts in advancing the management of information security across different industries.

1. Fri 23 Oct 2009
NSF Awards Wetzel & Lechler $144,000 for 2-year
Information Security Management Study
Two-year project combines computer science and technology
management expertise
By Patrick A. Berzinski
Director, University Communications
The Division of Information & Intelligent Systems of the National Science Foundation (NSF)
has awarded a two-year grant totaling $144,038 to two Stevens Institute of Technology
researchers from different disciplines to study advanced problems of managing information
security in an age of massive concentrations of sensitive private information and sophisticated
mining and cross-referencing of personal data.
Titled “EAGER: Quantifying Information Security Risks in Complex Systems at the Interface of
Users, Policies, and Technologies,” the proposal’s Principal Investigator is Dr. Susanne Wetzel,
an Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Schaefer School of Engineering & Science at
Stevens, who specializes in Cybersecurity and who is also the Director of Stevens’ Center for the
Advancement of Secure Systems and Information Assurance. Her Co-Principal Investigator is
Dr. Thomas Lechler, an Associate Professor in the Howe School of Technology Management at
Stevens, who specializes in Entrepreneurship, Project Management and Innovation Management,
and who is also Director for Academic Entrepreneurship Programs as Stevens.

2. The PIs’ proposal represents an “opportunity to seed a highly innovative interdisciplinary
research project that has the potential for significant practical and theoretical impact for the
management of information security – an area which is receiving more and more public
attention. During the past decade, research in information security has expanded from a purely
technical focus to a more general technology-economic focus. Despite its expansion, a
multidisciplinary approach to understand and theoretically explain the interaction of security and
economy within complex systems of partners is still missing,” said Wetzel and Lechler.
The principal objective of this proposed research is to develop an innovative interdisciplinary
information security framework to optimize and substantially advance both its system
information security and system productivity. “For example,” the PIs continued, “consider a
hospital that exchanges data records of patients with governmental data bases that – on the other
hand – are accessed by insurance companies. Furthermore, hospitals directly exchange
information with these insurance companies. This may allow an insurance company to combine
and deduce information from different data sources that could pose a security threat which is not
addressed by traditional security considerations. From a security economics perspective, the
impact of information exchange between partners on their productivity has to be considered to
understand the conditions under which partners will obey or violate information security
policies.”
The proposed project provides the potential for high impact in substantially advancing research
in information security as well as in management science. Although the project will address
systems information security within the health care industry, its outcomes are expected to be
applicable in other industries, e.g., defense. The cross-disciplinary nature of the proposed project
is also expected to identify opportunities for interdisciplinary education.
To learn more about the project, please contact Professor Wetzel at swetzel@stevens.edu or
Professor Lechler at tlechler@stevens.edu
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