CAE Lecture Series - August 29, 2024

Research Presentation and NSA Speaker

Nathan S. Evans
Last updated on Nov 13, 2025 News, Updates, Events

Details

Available data on firm cybersecurity often exhibits a positive correlation between investment in security precautions and cyber-attacks since investments are often made after a firm has been breached. Using survey data from Israeli firms about their cyber defenses, we overcome the endogeneity obstacle using an instrumental variable (IV) drawn from questions about a cybersecurity directive. The resulting regressions examine the causal relationship between security precautions potentially undertaken by enterprises and the likelihood of experiencing a cyber-incident. Once suitably instrumented and controlling for characteristics that make some firms more attractive attack targets than others, we find robust evidence that increased adoption of security controls does in fact reduce the likelihood of being breached.

Topic: Empirically Evaluating the Effect of Security Precautions on Cyber Incidents Date: August 29th, 2024 Time: Noon-2pm (Mountain time) Location: Microsoft Teams meeting Meeting ID: 254178154588 Passcode: 9gSU5j

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Original flyer PDF

CAE cybersecurity lecture series
Nathan S. Evans
Nathan S. Evans
Teaching Associate Professor, Academic Director for Cyber Security, University of Denver

Research includes networking, network security, software security and systems.

Interested in a formal cybersecurity or computer science degree?

The University of Denver is proud to offer multiple programs in cybersecurity, whether you want to be a manager or a frontline cyber warrior! Check out our program offerings at the DU Cybersecurity Page. We also have a cybersecurity concentration you can get on your way to a Computer Science degree! You can also email us if you want to learn more!

The programs in the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science are strongly technically grounded, and provide a CS/Cyber education for the future of cybersecurity.

Accreditation

The University of Denver is recognized as an NSA (National Security Agency) CAE-CD (Center of Academic Excellence – Cyber Defense). The NSA evaluates and accredits institutions providing cybersecurity degrees and curricula — a rigorous and prestigious validation performed by security experts and members of other educational institutions. It means the coursework of the Cybersecurity MS program at DU aligns with criteria mapped to the US government's NICE framework knowledge units.

More information can be found at the official NSA academic site here.