Authing Service of Platform: Tradeoff between Information Security and Convenience

Online platforms recently expanded their connectivity through an authing service. The growth of authing services enabled consumers to enjoy easy log in access without exerting extra effort. However, multiple points of access increases the security vulnerability of platform ecosystems. Despite the importance of balancing authing service and security, only a few studies examined platform connectivity. This study examines the optimal level of authing service of a platform and how authing strategies impact participants in a platform ecosystem. We used a game-theoretic approach to analyze security problems associated with authing services provided by online platforms for consumers and other linked platforms. The main findings are as follows: 1) the decreased expected loss of consumers will increase the number of players who participate in the platform; 2) linked platforms offer strong benefits from consumers involved in an authing service; 3) the main platform will increase its effort level, which includes security cost and checking of linked platform’s security if the expected loss of the consumers is low. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship between technology convenience and security risk and provides guidelines on authing strategies to platform managers.