Model-based dependability analysis : state-of-the-art, challenges and future outlook

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the study of model-based dependability analysis has gathered significant research interest. Different approaches have been developed to automate and address various limitations of classical dependability techniques to contend with the increasing complexity and challenges of modern safety-critical system. Two leading paradigms have emerged, one which constructs predictive system failure models from component failure models compositionally using the topology of the system. The other utilizes design models - typically state automata - to explore system behaviour through fault injection. This paper reviews a number of prominent techniques under these two paradigms, and provides an insight into their working mechanism, applicability, strengths and challenges, as well as recent developments within these fields. We also discuss the emerging trends on integrated approaches and advanced analysis capabilities. Lastly, we outline the future outlook for model-based dependability analysis

Pattern-driven security, privacy, dependability and interoperability management of iot environments

Achieving Security, Privacy, Dependability and Interoperability (SPDI) is of paramount importance for the ubiquitous deployment and impact maximization of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Nevertheless, said requirements are not only difficult to achieve at system initialization, but also hard to prove and maintain at run-time. This paper highlights an approach to tackling the above challenges, through the definition of pattern language and a framework that can guarantee SPDI in IoT orchestrations. By integrating pattern reasoning engines at the various layers of the IoT infrastructure, and a machine-processable representation of said pattern through Drools rules, the proposed framework can provide ways to fulfill SPDI requirements at design time, and also provide the means to guarantee those SPDI properties and manage the orchestrations accordingly. Moreover, an application example of the framework is presented in an Industrial IoT monitoring environment

A survey on online monitoring approaches of computer-based systems

This report surveys forms of online data collection that are in current use (as well as being the subject of research to adapt them to changing technology and demands), and can be used as inputs to assessment of dependability and resilience, although they are not primarily meant for this use

Towards Specifying And Evaluating The Trustworthiness Of An AI-Enabled System

Applied AI has shown promise in the data processing of key industries and government agencies to extract actionable information used to make important strategical decisions. One of the core features of AI-enabled systems is the trustworthiness of these systems which has an important implication for the robustness and full acceptance of these systems. In this paper, we explain what trustworthiness in AI-enabled systems means, and the key technical challenges of specifying, and verifying trustworthiness. Toward solving these technical challenges, we propose a method to specify and evaluate the trustworthiness of AI-based systems using quality-attribute scenarios and design tactics. Using our trustworthiness scenarios and design tactics, we can analyze the architectural design of AI-enabled systems to ensure that trustworthiness has been properly expressed and achieved.The contributions of the thesis include (i) the identification of the trustworthiness sub-attributes that affect the trustworthiness of AI systems (ii) the proposal of trustworthiness scenarios to specify trustworthiness in an AI system (iii) a design checklist to support the analysis of the trustworthiness of AI systems and (iv) the identification of design tactics that can be used to achieve trustworthiness in an AI 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

Characterizing the Identity of Model-based Safety Assessment: A Systematic Analysis

Model-based safety assessment has been one of the leading research thrusts of the System Safety Engineering community for over two decades. However, there is still a lack of consensus on what MBSA is. The ambiguity in the identity of MBSA impedes the advancement of MBSA as an active research area. For this reason, this paper aims to investigate the identity of MBSA to help achieve a consensus across the community. Towards this end, we first reason about the core activities that an MBSA approach must conduct. Second, we characterize the core patterns in which the core activities must be conducted for an approach to be considered MBSA. Finally, a recently published MBSA paper is reviewed to test the effectiveness of our characterization of MBSA