Addressing the Sustainability Challenges: Digital Economy Information Security Risk Assessment

In the digital economy, sustainable development is based on digital technologies. However, information security issues arising from its use pose significant challenges to sustainable development. Assessing information security risks in the digital economy is crucial for sustainable development. This paper constructs an information security risk assessment indicator system for the digital economy based on information ecology theory. Using game theory to combine CRITIC weights and entropy weights, the information security risk values for the digital economy in 29 provinces of China from 2019 to 2021 are calculated. Quantitative analysis is conducted using Ward’s method and the obstacle degree model. The combined weighting results indicate that the information security risks of the digital economy are mostly influenced by information infrastructure. Additionally, the spatio–temporal evolution pattern shows that the risk values of provinces vary to different degrees over time, with a distribution pattern of southern regions > northern regions > northwestern regions. Furthermore, the clustering results indicate that information technology is the primary cause of risk gaps. Finally, the obstacle degree model indicates that digital criminal behavior is the greatest obstacle to information security in the digital economy. The research findings hold significant implications for addressing information security challenges in the global digital economy’s sustainable development process, particularly in terms of the replicability of the research methodology and the valuable case study of China.