Part A

Classical Economic Theory applies to the information letter because the company was using or holding consumers financial information was willingly given in the process of purchasing items. This was part of normal business practices.

Rational Choice Theory also applies to the information letter because the business chose to use a third-party platform as part of its business practices. The choice was probably made due to a balancing of costs and effort to maintain a website. Thus, the company relied on the third part platform for its security, and they failed resulting in a breach and thus the letter being sent.

Structural Functionalism applies here because the business and third-party platform both serve as consumers and providers of services in relation to one another. The business served as a consumer to the platform for web management and the platform was the provider of           said services. The business also served as a provider of services towards the recipient of the letter.

The recipient of the letter might also feel that their safety needs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has been violated. This is because their information has been stolen and possible used in a fraudulent manner. This would cause trauma for both safety and security. If charges were made and/or their identity was stolen even the physiological needs could be in question dues to the financial risks involved with basic needs in the digital era.

Part B

The bug bounty market seems like a great way for more eyes on the problem after initial launching of infrastructure. This is because according to the paper fewer bugs were reported with time. Meaning that fewer bugs were found by independent penetration testers. It does also suggest that using crowd sourced testing is a bit cheaper than having 2 in house professionals. So using bug bounty programs provides the bonuses of more testers at lower costs initially but in the long term companies still need to have professionals on staff for monitoring and updating as new technologies emerge.