Querying Fault and Attack Trees:Property Specification on a Water Network

We provide an overview of three different query languages whose objective is to specify properties on the highly popular formalisms of fault trees (FTs) and attack trees (ATs). These are BFL, a Boolean Logic for FTs, PFL, a probabilistic extension of BFL and ATM, a logic for security metrics on ATs. We validate the framework composed by these three logics by applying them to the case study of a water distribution network. We extend the FT for this network - found in the literature - and we propose to model the system under analysis with the Fault Trees/Attack Trees (FT/ATs) formalism, combining both FTs and ATs in a unique model. Furthermore, we propose a novel combination of the showcased logics to account for queries that jointly consider both the FT and the AT of the model, integrating influences of attacks on failure probabilities of different components. Finally, we extend the domain specific language for PFL with novel constructs to capture the interplay between metrics of attacks - e.g., "cost", success probabilities - and failure probabilities in the system

Model-based Safety and Security Co-analysis: a Survey

We survey the state-of-the-art on model-based formalisms for safety and security analysis, where safety refers to the absence of unintended failures, and security absence of malicious attacks. We consider ten model-based formalisms, comparing their modeling principles, the interaction between safety and security, and analysis methods. In each formalism, we model the classical Locked Door Example where possible. Our key finding is that the exact nature of safety-security interaction is still ill-understood. Existing formalisms merge previous safety and security formalisms, without introducing specific constructs to model safety-security interactions, or metrics to analyze trade offs

Secure Development of Big Data Ecosystems

A Big Data environment is a powerful and complex ecosystem that helps companies extract important information from data to make the best business and strategic decisions. In this context, due to the quantity, variety, and sensitivity of the data managed by these systems, as well as the heterogeneity of the technologies involved, privacy and security especially become crucial issues. However, ensuring these concerns in Big Data environments is not a trivial issue, and it cannot be treated from a partial or isolated perspective. It must be carried out through a holistic approach, starting from the definition of requirements and policies, and being present in any relevant activity of its development and deployment. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a methodological approach for integrating security and privacy in Big Data development based on main standards and common practices. In this way, we have defined a development process for this kind of ecosystems that considers not only security in all the phases of the process but also the inherent characteristics of Big Data. We describe this process through a set of phases that covers all the relevant stages of the development of Big Data environments, which are supported by a customized security reference architecture (SRA) that defines the main components of this kind of systems along with the key concepts of security

SysML-Sec: A Model Driven Approach for Designing Safe and Secure Systems

International audience<p>Security flaws are open doors to attack embedded systems and must be carefully assessed in order to determine threats to safety and security. Subsequently securing a system, that is, integrating security mechanisms into the system’s architecture can itself impact the system’s safety, for instance deadlines could be missed due to an increase in computations and communications latencies. SysML-Sec addresses these issues with a model- driven approach that promotes the collaboration between system designers and security experts at all design and development stages, e.g., requirements, attacks, partitioning, design, and validation. A central point of SysML-Sec is its partitioning stage during which safety-related and security-related functions are explored jointly and iteratively with regards to requirements and attacks. Once partitioned, the system is designed in terms of system’s functions and security mechanisms, and formally verified from both the safety and the se- curity perspectives. Our paper illustrates the whole methodology with the evaluation of a security mechanism added to an existing automotive system.</p

An Educational Framework to Support Industrial Control System Security Engineering

Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) are used to monitor and control critical infrastructure such as electricity and water. ICS were originally stand-alone systems, but are now widely being connected to corporate national IT networks, making remote monitoring and more timely control possible. While this connectivity has brought multiple benefits to ICS, such as cost reductions and an increase in redundancy and flexibility, ICS were not designed for open connectivity and therefore are more prone to security threats, creating a greater requirement for adequate security engineering approaches. The culture gap between developers and security experts is one of the main challenges of ICS security engineering. Control system developers play an important role in building secure systems; however, they lack security training and support throughout the development process. Security training, which is an essential activity in the defence-indepth strategy for ICS security, has been addressed, but has not been given sufficient attention in academia. Security support is a key means by which to tackle this challenge via assisting developers in ICS security by design. This thesis proposes a novel framework, the Industrial Control System Security Engineering Support (ICS-SES), which aims to help developers in designing secure control systems by enabling them to reuse secure design patterns and improve their security knowledge. ICS-SES adapts pattern-based approach to guide developers in security engineering, and an automated planning technique to provide adaptive on-the-job security training tailored to personal needs. The usability of ICS-SES has been evaluated using an empirical study in terms of its effectiveness in assisting the design of secure control systems and improving developers’ security knowledge. The results show that ICS-SES can efficiently help control system designers to mitigate security vulnerabilities and improve their security knowledge, reducing the difficulties associated with the security engineering process, and the results have been found to be statically significant. In summary, ICS-SES provides a unified method of supporting an ICS security by design approach. It fosters a development environment where engineers can improve their security knowledge while working in a control system production line.Libyan Embassy in London, U