An Evaluation and Certification Approach to Enable Voting Service Providers

In this paper we provide an evaluation and certification approach for Voting Service Providers (VSPs) which combines the evaluation of the electronic voting system and the operational environment for the first time. The VSP is a qualified institution which combines a secure voting system and a secure operational environment to provide secure remote electronic elections as a service [La08]. This centralized approach facilitates legal regulation and evaluation. So far, a legal regulation framework for VSPs has been developed which demands evaluation and certification of the VSP [Sc09a]. Therefore the VSP is required to provide a security concept in which it demonstrates satisfaction of the security requirements defined in the legal regulation. However neither the content of this security concept nor an adequate evaluation methodology has been specified so far. We therefore developed a security concept template and a comprehensive evaluation methodology for the VSP, which includes both the voting system and operational environment of VSPs. Our proposal incorporates existing evaluation methodologies to facilitate evaluation and certification. With this paper and the legal regulation a realistic approach to enable the VSP concept is accomplished

Systematic Comparison of Methods in Threat and Risk Analysis of ICT Security in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is the connection of intelligent objects with information technology and thus with the internet. This leads to new fields of application in information technology. To protect intelligent objects security approaches are necessary. Several security standards already exist for ICT, but not for Industry 4.0. The present paper considers standards to conduct threat analysis and risk analysis of ICT security based on a literature review. A catalogue of criteria relevant to such standards for Industry 4.0 is developed which serves as the basis of their evaluation. Thirteen standards are identified as relevant regarding the criteria, among them IT-Grundschutz

Exiting the risk assessment maze: A meta-survey

Organizations are exposed to threats that increase the risk factor of their ICT systems. The assurance of their protection is crucial, as their reliance on information technology is a continuing challenge for both security experts and chief executives. As risk assessment could be a necessary process in an organization, one of its deliverables could be utilized in addressing threats and thus facilitate the development of a security strategy. Given the large number of heterogeneous methods and risk assessment tools that exist, comparison criteria can provide better understanding of their options and characteristics and facilitate the selection of a method that best fits an organization’s needs. This paper aims to address the problem of selecting an appropriate risk assessment method to assess and manage information security risks, by proposing a set of comparison criteria, grouped into 4 categories. Based upon them, it provides a comparison of the 10 popular risk assessment methods that could be utilized by organizations to determine the method that is more suitable for their needs. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the selection of a method based on the proposed criteri

Cyber Security and Security Frameworks for Cloud and IoT Architectures

Das Cloud Computing hat die Art und Weise unserer Kommunikation in den letzten Jahren rapide verändert. Es ermöglicht die Bereitstellung unterschiedlicher Dienste über das Internet. Inzwischen wurden sowohl für Unternehmen, als auch für den privaten Sektor verschiedene Anwendungen des Cloud Computing entwickelt. Dabei bringt jede Anwendung zahlreiche Vorteile mit sich, allerdings werden auch neue Herausforderungen an die IT-Sicherheit gestellt. In dieser Dissertation werden besonders wichtige Anwendungen des Cloud Computing auf die aktuellen Herausforderungen für die IT-Sicherheit untersucht. 1. Die Container Virtualisierung ermöglicht die Trennung der eigentlichen Anwendung von der IT-Infrastruktur. Dadurch kann ein vorkonfiguriertes Betriebssystem-Image zusammen mit einer Anwendung in einem Container kombiniert und in einer Testumgebung evaluiert werden. Dieses Prinzip hat vor allem die Software-Entwicklung in Unternehmen grundlegend verändert. Container können verwendet werden, um software in einer isolierten Umgebung zu testen, ohne den operativen Betrieb zu stören. Weiterhin ist es möglich, verschiedene Container-Instanzen über mehrere Hosts hinweg zu verwalten. In dem Fall spricht man von einer Orchestrierung. Da Container sensible unternehmensinterne Daten beinhalten, müssen Unternehmen ihr IT-Sicherheitskonzept für den Einsatz von Container Virtualisierungen überarbeiten. Dies stellt eine große Herausforderung dar, da es derzeit wenig Erfahrung mit der Absicherung von (orchestrierten) Container Virtualisierungen gibt. 2. Da Container Dienste über das Internet bereitstellen, sind Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter, die diese Dienste für ihre Arbeit benötigen, an keinen festen Arbeitsplatz gebunden. Dadurch werden wiederum Konzepte wie das home

Current established risk assessment methodologies and tools

The technology behind information systems evolves at an exponential rate, while at the same time becoming more and more ubiquitous. This brings with it an implicit rise in the average complexity of systems as well as the number of external interactions. In order to allow a proper assessment of the security of such (sub)systems, a whole arsenal of methodologies, methods and tools have been developed in recent years. However, most security auditors commonly use a very small subset of this collection, that best suits their needs. This thesis aims at uncovering the differences and limitations of the most common Risk Assessment frameworks, the conceptual models that support them, as well as the tools that implement them. This is done in order to gain a better understanding of the applicability of each method and/or tool and suggest guidelines to picking the most suitable one