Embracing Risk: Cyber insurance as an incentive mechanism for cybersecurity

Mingyan Liu, professor and Peter and Evelyn Fuss Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has drawn from her expertise as a researcher and entrepreneur to write a book providing novel insights into how cybersecurity can be enhanced through cyber insurance.

The book, Embracing Risk: Cyber Insurance as an Incentive Mechanism for Cybersecurity, is intended for someone interested in obtaining a quantitative understanding of cyber insurance and how innovation is possible around this centuries-old financial instrument. It is published by Morgan & Claypool Publishers, and available in print or electronically.

The goal of the book is to shift the focus from the conventional view of using insurance as primarily a risk management mechanism to one of risk control and reduction by looking for ways to re-align the incentives. Liu’s research points to the validity of using insurance as an effective economic and incentive tool to control cyber risk.

Liu’s research interests are in optimal resource allocation, sequential decision theory, incentive design, and performance modeling and analysis, all within the context of large-scale networked systems. Her most recent research activities involve cyber risk quantification and designing cybersecurity incentive mechanisms using large-scale Internet measurement data and machine learning techniques.

She co-founded the company QuadMetrics, Inc. in 2014, which was acquired by the analytics software firm FICO in 2016. Among other honors, she is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the College of Engineering Excellence in Education Award, and the Distinguished University Innovator Award. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the ACM.