A Game-Theoretic Approach for Pricing Cloud Computing and Determining the Security Level of Security Provider Companies

Articles in Press

Document Type : Article

Authors

1 Isfahan University Of Technology

2 Isfahan University of Technology

10.24200/j65.2024.64530.2406

Abstract

Since hardware may experience sudden failure and software solutions are often costly, users need an environment to perform computational and data storage tasks without expensive hardware and software. Cloud computing can provide this capability, but the presence of cyber hackers and their attacks raise user concerns about their data security. As information is precious, losing it can result in significant costs for the information owner. To address this problem, companies have emerged to ensure the safety of cloud computing services, and cloud users can entrust their information security to them. This article aims to examine the competition between security provider companies and cyber hackers using game theory and determine the strategies of each player to determine the game structure. These structures are based on the leader's decision to determine the security level initially or after an attack has occurred. The company decides what price to offer the user based on the value of the information, the amount of effort needed to return the information after successful attack, the security level it needs to maintain and the power structure. Similarly, the hacker decides how much effort to put in based on the value of the information. The results show that the price decreases linearly based on the information value, when the company is the leader. In addition to the results obtained about the company's profit, it shows that in general, the company's profit, when it is a leader, is more than when it is a follower, and in particular, the company's profit based on the percentage of returned information in the leader's position is much higher than in the position of the follower. The level of security provided is also different according to the position of the company, and when the company is the leader, it is much higher than when the company is the follower, based on the hacker's credibility and the value of the returned information.

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Sharif Journal of Industrial Engineering & Management

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 31 August 2024

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