Biography

Dmitry Zhdanov is a Ph.D. candidate in the Information and Decision Sciences Department at the Carlson School of Management, which he joined in 2002. He earned his Bachelor of Management degree with a concentration in Marketing from Voronezh State University in Russia in 1997, as well as an MBA degree from University of Texas at Dallas with concentration in MIS in 2000. Dmitry is a recipient of Carlson School Dissertation Fellowship for 2005-2006 and he was a finalist for Juran Fellowship for Leadership in Quality.  He also was an invited participant at Summer Workshop on Economics of IT at New York University in 2005.

 Background.  “I wrote my first computer program when I was 10, and computers have been part of my life ever since. Still, one might find it odd that up to today I have no formal degree in IS, nor has IT ever been part of my job description. However, I ended up doing a lot of informal systems development and management work throughout my career. This experience has kept me excited about the opportunities that IT bring to businesses, and encouraged me to keep well informed about multiple issues that come along. Finally I decided that the best path to satisfy both my intellectual curiosity and desire to see my work have an impact in real world is to pursue an academic career in information systems.”

 Research Interests.  “My current research interests evolve around the problem of provisioning of adequate levels of information security in organizations. Information security is an important problem in recent days.  Despite the availability of very powerful and extensive security tools, the number and the severity of information security incidents have been consistently higher than one might expect. Both practitioners and academic researchers are coming to the realization that information security problems are a manifestation of misaligned economic incentives rather than technical shortcomings. I am proposing to look comprehensively at the parties involved in information security interactions – firms, their agents and employees, service providers, etc. – and analyze the incentives and interactions between parties.”

 “More broadly, I would like to build on my background in quantitative methods and my supporting disciplines of economics and computer science. My interests in economics of IT also extend to issues of market structure and industrial organization, and standards and dynamic pricing mechanisms, as they all have applications to information security problem as well as many other situations. I am also growing more and more interested in the design of intelligent agents and their applications in business.”

 Current Research Project.  “Information security is a multi-faceted phenomenon which may be studied from different perspectives, including economics, and organizational, psychological and algorithmic approaches. While I strongly believe that all of these perspectives offer unique and complimentary insights, at present I am focusing on the economic analysis of information security issues.”

 “There are three important dimensions where economic analysis is appropriate: (1) identification of critical assets and development of appropriate protection efforts based on the costs and the benefits of protection (involving the determination of the organization’s security perimeter); (2) analysis of tradeoffs between information security and access to information and other resources (towards a production theory of security); (3) development of incentives mechanisms that will align security goals of organizations with interests of its agents (covering mechanism design for information security).

 “My recent project work along these lines has been done in close collaboration with my advisor, Dr. Alok Gupta. We are studying the reasons and mechanisms for the existence, formation and growth of managed security services (MSSP) networks. Outsourcing aspects of the information security function may seem counterintuitive, as outsourcers are giving access and often control of the all-important digital assets of an organization to third parties. However, the MSSP market has been growing at unprecedented rates. We analyze conditions that play are favor and against such markets.  We also describe reasons and incentives of individual companies to join MSSP networks.”

 General Impressions.  “My experience in the University of Minnesota Ph.D. program has been very positive, and I am certain it gives me an excellent preparation for an academic career in business school. I join my fellow students in their appreciation of very friendly and collaborative research environment and multiple opportunities for advancement. Just one example will give you an idea of what I mean.  For years I was thinking of myself as unready for teaching, and was looking to this part of my future with many doubts and little hope.  However, this started to change as soon as I became involved with students and faculty in my teaching assistant assignment. By the time I had to teach my own class, my confidence had been built up for success. Nowadays, I’m looking forward to new teaching opportunities with delight.”

 “I can honestly say that at Minnesota I’ve met greatest group of people in my life.  I sincerely thank all of my colleagues for their encouragement, guidance and unconditional support that I’m so lucky to have had.”