Anderson Frailey
Assistant Professor
Economics Department
UMBC
12 noon–1pm
Friday, April 24, 2026
Remotely via WebEx: https://umbc.webex.com/meet/sherman
Recording of Talk
Abstract:
Individuals are constantly generating streams of data collected by businesses, educational institutions, data brokers, and many other organizations. These organizations are regularly targeted by cyber criminals attempting to steal that data to
exploit or sell it in online markets. I propose a model of the stolen data economy to show how privacy regulations may affect this market. I then introduce a novel dataset of data breaches to study the effects of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the quantity of data available in the illicit market. Using a difference-in-differences design, I find that the GDPR caused a 60 percent reduction in the number of data breaches traded, but no reduction in the aggregate amount of data available. At the individual breach level, I find an over 60 percent increase in
the amount of data they contain. These results are consistent with the model’s prediction that higher-value targets will make up a larger portion of post-GDPR data breaches due to changes in their relative value.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Anderson Frailey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at UMBC. He received his PhD and MA in economics from the University of Virginia, and BA in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the economics of privacy, information, and cybercrime. Occasionally, he will also dabble in baseball analytics.
Email: afrailey@umbc.edu, Websites: andersonfrailey.github.io, https://economics.umbc.edu/anderson-frailey/
Host:
Alan T. Sherman, sherman@umbc.edu
Support for this event was provided in part by the National Science Foundation under SFS grant DGE-1753681.
The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab meets biweekly Fridays 12-1pm. All meetings are open to the public.
Upcoming CDL meetings:
- Apr 24, Anderson Frailey (Econ)
- May 8, Chul Hyu Park (Public Policy)