Simulated social control for secure Internet commerce

In this paper we suggest that soft security such as social COIIt.rol has to Ire used to create secure open systems. Social co7Ltrol 7nearls that it is the participants the7nselves who are responsible for the security, as opposed to leaving the security to sonle external or global authority. Social mechanisms don't deny the. existe7rce of 7nalicious participants. Instead the?/ are aiming at avoiding interaction with them. This 7nakes them more robust than hard security mechnnisms such as passwo7.ds, who reveal everythi7Lg if they are bypassed. We describe our work in progress of constructing a workbench to ru71 sirnulatiorls uf electronic markets. By examining the success of different security mechanisms to avoid 7naliciously behaving actors we hope to gain insight into how to create electronic markets. The idea of creating reputations for the participants is discussed.