14,495 research outputs found
A Cut Principle for Information Flow
We view a distributed system as a graph of active locations with
unidirectional channels between them, through which they pass messages. In this
context, the graph structure of a system constrains the propagation of
information through it.
Suppose a set of channels is a cut set between an information source and a
potential sink. We prove that, if there is no disclosure from the source to the
cut set, then there can be no disclosure to the sink. We introduce a new
formalization of partial disclosure, called *blur operators*, and show that the
same cut property is preserved for disclosure to within a blur operator. This
cut-blur property also implies a compositional principle, which ensures limited
disclosure for a class of systems that differ only beyond the cut.Comment: 31 page
Towards a Layered Architectural View for Security Analysis in SCADA Systems
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems support and control
the operation of many critical infrastructures that our society depend on, such
as power grids. Since SCADA systems become a target for cyber attacks and the
potential impact of a successful attack could lead to disastrous consequences
in the physical world, ensuring the security of these systems is of vital
importance. A fundamental prerequisite to securing a SCADA system is a clear
understanding and a consistent view of its architecture. However, because of
the complexity and scale of SCADA systems, this is challenging to acquire. In
this paper, we propose a layered architectural view for SCADA systems, which
aims at building a common ground among stakeholders and supporting the
implementation of security analysis. In order to manage the complexity and
scale, we define four interrelated architectural layers, and uses the concept
of viewpoints to focus on a subset of the system. We indicate the applicability
of our approach in the context of SCADA system security analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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The THREAT-ARREST Cyber-Security Training Platform
Cyber security is always a main concern for critical infrastructures and nation-wide safety and sustainability. Thus, advanced cyber ranges and security training is becoming imperative for the involved organizations. This paper presets a cyber security training platform, called THREAT-ARREST. The various platform modules can analyze an organization’s system, identify the most critical threats, and tailor a training program to its personnel needs. Then, different training programmes are created based on the trainee types (i.e. administrator, simple operator, etc.), providing several teaching procedures and accomplishing diverse learning goals. One of the main novelties of THREAT-ARREST is the modelling of these programmes along with the runtime monitoring, management, and evaluation operations. The platform is generic. Nevertheless, its applicability in a smart energy case study is detailed
Model Based Development of Quality-Aware Software Services
Modelling languages and development frameworks give support for functional and structural description of software architectures. But quality-aware applications require languages which allow expressing QoS as a first-class concept during architecture design and service composition, and to extend existing tools and infrastructures adding support for modelling, evaluating, managing and monitoring QoS aspects. In addition to its functional behaviour and internal structure, the developer of each service must consider the fulfilment of its quality requirements. If the service is flexible, the output quality depends both on input quality and available resources (e.g., amounts of CPU execution time and memory). From the software engineering point of view, modelling of quality-aware requirements and architectures require modelling support for the description of quality concepts, support for the analysis of quality properties (e.g. model checking and consistencies of quality constraints, assembly of quality), tool support for the transition from quality requirements to quality-aware architectures, and from quality-aware architecture to service run-time infrastructures. Quality management in run-time service infrastructures must give support for handling quality concepts dynamically. QoS-aware modeling frameworks and QoS-aware runtime management infrastructures require a common evolution to get their integration
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