Digital Adoption and Cyber Security: An Analysis of Canadian Businesses

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Jasiak, Joann, MacKenzie, Peter, Tuvaandorj, Purevdorj
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Jasiak, Joann
MacKenzie, Peter
Tuvaandorj, Purevdorj
author_facet Jasiak, Joann
MacKenzie, Peter
Tuvaandorj, Purevdorj
contents This paper examines how Canadian firms balance the benefits of technology adoption against the rising risk of cyber security breaches. We merge data from the 2021 Canadian Survey of Digital Technology and Internet Use and the 2021 Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime to investigate the trade-off firms face when pursuing digitalization to enhance productivity and efficiency, balanced against the potential increase in cyber security risk. The analysis explores the extent of digital technology adoption, differences across industries, the subsequent associations with efficiency, and associated cyber security vulnerabilities. We build aggregate variables, such as the Business Digital Usage Score and a cyber security incidence variable to quantify each firm's digital engagement and cyber security risk. A survey-weight-adjusted Lasso estimator is employed, and a debiasing method for high-dimensional logit models is introduced to identify the predictors of technological efficiency and cyber risk. The analysis reveals a digital divide linked to firm size, industry, and workforce composition. While rapid expansion of tools such as cloud services or artificial intelligence can raise efficiency, it simultaneously heightens exposure to cyber threats, particularly among larger enterprises.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_12413
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Digital Adoption and Cyber Security: An Analysis of Canadian Businesses
Jasiak, Joann
MacKenzie, Peter
Tuvaandorj, Purevdorj
General Economics
Economics
This paper examines how Canadian firms balance the benefits of technology adoption against the rising risk of cyber security breaches. We merge data from the 2021 Canadian Survey of Digital Technology and Internet Use and the 2021 Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime to investigate the trade-off firms face when pursuing digitalization to enhance productivity and efficiency, balanced against the potential increase in cyber security risk. The analysis explores the extent of digital technology adoption, differences across industries, the subsequent associations with efficiency, and associated cyber security vulnerabilities. We build aggregate variables, such as the Business Digital Usage Score and a cyber security incidence variable to quantify each firm's digital engagement and cyber security risk. A survey-weight-adjusted Lasso estimator is employed, and a debiasing method for high-dimensional logit models is introduced to identify the predictors of technological efficiency and cyber risk. The analysis reveals a digital divide linked to firm size, industry, and workforce composition. While rapid expansion of tools such as cloud services or artificial intelligence can raise efficiency, it simultaneously heightens exposure to cyber threats, particularly among larger enterprises.
title Digital Adoption and Cyber Security: An Analysis of Canadian Businesses
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12413