Social value is the broader public or organizational benefit a system creates beyond simple efficiency gains. In cyber security and AI governance, it asks whether a tool improves safety, trust, access, resilience, or decision quality—not just speed or cost. A system can be technically effective and still have low social value if it increases harm, concentrates power, or weakens accountability.
This matters because security decisions always involve tradeoffs. Defenses such as logging, access controls, model review, and human oversight may add friction, but they can increase social value by reducing fraud, abuse, and service disruption. In attacks, threat actors often target high-social-value systems such as public services, hospitals, or critical platforms because the impact of compromise is greater. Measuring social value helps defenders justify controls, prioritize resources, and prove that a system is worth operating.