Using Machine Learning to Assist with the Selection of Security Controls During Security Assessment

In many domains such as healthcare and banking, IT systems need to fulfill various requirements related to security. The elaboration of security requirements for a given system is in part guided by the controls envisaged by the applicable security standards and best practices. An important difficulty that analysts have to contend with during security requirements elaboration is sifting through a large number of security controls and determining which ones have a bearing on the security requirements for a given system. This challenge is often exacerbated by the scarce security expertise available in most organizations. [Objective] In this article, we develop automated decision support for the identification of security controls that are relevant to a specific system in a particular context. [Method and Results] Our approach, which is based on machine learning, leverages historical data from security assessments performed over past systems in order to recommend security controls for a new system. We operationalize and empirically evaluate our approach using real historical data from the banking domain. Our results show that, when one excludes security controls that are rare in the historical data, our approach has an average recall of ≈ 94% and average precision of ≈ 63%. We further examine through a survey the perceptions of security analysts about the usefulness of the classification models derived from historical data. [Conclusions] The high recall – indicating only a few relevant security controls are missed – combined with the reasonable level of precision – indicating that the effort required to confirm recommendations is not excessive – suggests that our approach is a useful aid to analysts for more efficiently identifying the relevant security controls, and also for decreasing the likelihood that important controls would be overlooked. Further, our survey results suggest that the generated classification models help provide a documented and explicit rationale for choosing the applicable security controls

ISO/IEC 27001: An empirical multi-method research

The adoption of digital technologies, the emergence of platform-based business models, and the switch to smart working practices are increasing the number of potential entry points in firms’ networks and therefore their potential vulnerabilities. However, despite the relevance of the issue, the managerial debate on the topic is still scant and several research gaps exist. Under this premise, this doctoral thesis touches on the following aspects. First, by discussing the issue with senior executives and information security experts, it highlights the most relevant information security challenges in the context of Industry 4.0. In doing this, it also shows where current approaches fail short, and what emerging practices are gaining relevance. Second, by conducting a systematic literature review, the thesis provides a comprehensive synthesis of the academic body of knowledge on ISO/IEC 27001 (i.e., the most renowned international management standard for information security and the fourth most widespread ISO certification) as well as it formulates a theory-based research agenda to inspire future studies at the intersection between information systems and managerial disciplines. Third, by resorting to Grey models, it investigates the current and future diffusion patterns of ISO/IEC 27001 in the six most important countries in terms of issued certificates. Fourth, by performing an event study complemented by an ordinary least squares regression on a dataset of 143 US-listed companies, the dissertation sheds light on the performance implications of ISO/IEC 27001 adoption as well as the role of some contextual factors in affecting the outcomes of the adoption. Overall, this doctoral thesis provides several contributions to both theory and practice. From a theoretical point of view, it highlights the need for managerial disciplines to start addressing information security-related aspects. Moreover, it demonstrates that investments in information security pay off also from a financial perspective. From a practical point of view, it shows the increasingly central role that ISO/IEC 27001 is likely to have in the years to come and it provides managers with evidence on the possible performance effects associated to its adoption.The adoption of digital technologies, the emergence of platform-based business models, and the switch to smart working practices are increasing the number of potential entry points in firms’ networks and therefore their potential vulnerabilities. However, despite the relevance of the issue, the managerial debate on the topic is still scant and several research gaps exist. Under this premise, this doctoral thesis touches on the following aspects. First, by discussing the issue with senior executives and information security experts, it highlights the most relevant information security challenges in the context of Industry 4.0. In doing this, it also shows where current approaches fail short, and what emerging practices are gaining relevance. Second, by conducting a systematic literature review, the thesis provides a comprehensive synthesis of the academic body of knowledge on ISO/IEC 27001 (i.e., the most renowned international management standard for information security and the fourth most widespread ISO certification) as well as it formulates a theory-based research agenda to inspire future studies at the intersection between information systems and managerial disciplines. Third, by resorting to Grey models, it investigates the current and future diffusion patterns of ISO/IEC 27001 in the six most important countries in terms of issued certificates. Fourth, by performing an event study complemented by an ordinary least squares regression on a dataset of 143 US-listed companies, the dissertation sheds light on the performance implications of ISO/IEC 27001 adoption as well as the role of some contextual factors in affecting the outcomes of the adoption. Overall, this doctoral thesis provides several contributions to both theory and practice. From a theoretical point of view, it highlights the need for managerial disciplines to start addressing information security-related aspects. Moreover, it demonstrates that investments in information security pay off also from a financial perspective. From a practical point of view, it shows the increasingly central role that ISO/IEC 27001 is likely to have in the years to come and it provides managers with evidence on the possible performance effects associated to its adoption