The government-backed Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network is to set up a new special interest group (SIG) tasked with identifying the economic issues affecting the IT security industry.

The Economics of Information Security SIG will meet for the first time on 26 September, and could investigate a wide range of issues, according to Cyber Security KTN director Nigel Jones.

"It will have to focus on something achievable. What are the economic models? Is ROI the best way to look at security? What is the relationship between confidentiality, availability and integrity? And can we put values on these to make investment cases?" he explained.

"Or we could look at how we make this thinking on economics available to small businesses that are not usually thinking about such things. All these areas need addressing and there is a hunger for that."

The SIG could also explore the problem in the security sphere of a lack of shared information, which makes it hard to validate vendor claims about their products, according to Jones.

"It is about providing a way for the security folks to talk to the budget folks in a way they both understand, and economics is a good way of doing this, " he said.