Topics
Trustworthy Systems of Systems
Complexity is inevitable in SoSs since missions in SoSs are achieved through emergent behaviour drawn from the interaction among constituent systems. Hence, complexity poses the need for separation of concerns between architecture and engineering: (i) architecture focuses on reasoning about interactions of parts and their emergent properties; (ii) engineering focuses on designing and constructing such parts and integrating them as architected.
A key facet of the design of any soft- ware-intensive system or system-of- systems is its architecture.
Therefore, the research challenge raised by SoSs is fundamentally architectural: it is about how to organize the interactions among the constituent systems to enable the emergence of SoS-wide be- haviours/properties derived from local behaviours/properties (by acting only on their interconnections, without being able to act in the constituent systems themselves).
Trustworthiness is thereby a global property directly impacted by emergent behaviours - which may be faulty, resulting in threats to safety or cybersecurity.
Various recent projects have addressed this challenge by formulating and formalizing the architecture of software- intensive SoSs. A systematic literature review revealed that 75% of all publica- tions addressing the architecture of soft- ware-intensive SoSs appeared in the last five years, and approximately 90% in the last 10 years.
Much of the published research describes open issues after having experimented with existing systems approaches for architecting or engineering SoSs.
Actually, although different Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) have been defined for formally modelling the architecture of single systems, none has the expressive power to
describe the architecture of software- intensive SoSs [2][3].
To fill this gap, we have defined SosADL, a novel ADL specifically conceived for formally describing the architecture of trustworthy software-intensive SoSs.
Formally defined in terms of the π-calculus with concurrent constraints, SosADL provides architectural concepts and notation for describing SoS architectures. The approach for the design of SosADL is to provide architectural constructs that are formally defined by a generalization of the π-calculus with mediated constraints. Both safety and cyber-security are addressed.
Using SosADL, an SoS is defined by coalitions that constitute temporary alliances for combined action among systems connected via mediators.
What is a CAE?
Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity are institutions that have met rigorous requirements, and through careful evaluation are designated as CAE in Cybersecurity. An institution or program must apply to be a CAE every five academic years. Students attending CAE-CD and CAE-R schools are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and can apply for the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program. CAE in Cybersecurity institutions receive formal recognition from the U.S. Government as well as
What is a CAE?
Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity are institutions that have met rigorous requirements, and through careful evaluation are designated as CAE in Cybersecurity. An institution or program must apply to be a CAE every five academic years. Students attending CAE-CD and CAE-R schools are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and can apply for the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program. CAE in Cybersecurity institutions receive formal recognition from the U.S. Government as well as opportunities for prestige and publicity in return for their role in supporting our Nation's information systems.
Trust Your Software?
Dr June Andronick gives SUE talk about how industries should start switching to verified software.
2018-01-30 "Trust Your Software?" - Trustworthy Systems' group leader June Andronick has given a SUE Talk as part of the Monash Business School executive education program 'Your Leadership Voice: Women in Focus'. SUE talks are bold, passionate and inspiring talks bysuccessful, unstoppable and empowering women changing the face of business! You can learn more about the 'Your Leadership Voice: Women in Focus' program here.
Adaptive cyber security decision support to prevent cyber attacks
Recognizing the complexity of cyber attacks and the multi-stakeholder nature of tackling cyber security are the key components of a new data-driven cyber security system currently being developed. The aim is to support organizations of all sizes in maintaining adequate levels of cyber security through a semi-automatic, regularly updated, organization-tailored security assessment of their digital infrastructures.
National Centers of Academic Excellence
National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense
The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly sponsor the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) program. The goal of the program is to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and producing professionals with cyber defense expertise.
The CAE-CD program comprises the following designations:
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Four-Year Baccalaureate/Graduate Education (CAE-CDE)
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Two-Year Education (CAE2Y)
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Research (CAE-R)
All regionally accredited two-year, four-year, and graduate level institutions in the United States are eligible to apply to become a CAE-CD school.
Attack Surface Analysis Cheat Sheet
1. This article describes a simple and pragmatic way of doing Attack Surface Analysis and managing an application's Attack Surface. It is targeted to be used by developers to understand and manage application security risks as they design and change an application, as well as by application security specialists doing a security risk assessment.
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2. Michael Howard at Microsoft and other researchers have developed a method for measuring the Attack Surface of an application, and to track changes to the Attack Surface over time, called the Relative Attack Surface Quotient (RSQ). Using this method you calculate an overall attack surface score for the system, and measure this score as changes are made to the system and to how it is deployed. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon built on this work to develop a formal way to calculate an Attack Surface Metric for large systems like SAP. They calculate the Attack Surface as the sum of all entry and exit points, channels (the different ways that clients or external systems connect to the system, including TCP/UDP ports, RPC end points, named pipes...) and untrusted data elements. Then they apply a damage potential/effort ratio to these Attack Surface elements to identify high-risk areas.
Security in Embedded Systems: Design Challenges
Many modern electronic systems—including personal computers, PDAs, cell phones, network routers, smart cards, and networked sensors to name a few—need to access, store, manipulate, or communicate sensitive information, making security a serious concern in their design. Embedded systems, which account for a wide range of products from the electronics, semiconductor, telecom- munications, and networking industries, face some of the most demanding security concerns—on the one hand, they are often highly resource constrained, while on the other hand, they frequently need to operate in physically insecure environments.
Security has been the subject of intensive research in the context of general-purpose computing and communications systems. However, security is often misconstrued by embedded system designers as the addition of features, such as specific cryptographic algorithms and security protocols, to the system. In reality, it is a new dimension that designers should consider throughout the design process, along with other metrics such as cost, performance, and power.
The challenges unique to embedded systems require new approaches to security covering all aspects of embedded system design from architecture to implementation. Security processing, which refers to the computations that must be performed in a system for the purpose of security, can easily overwhelm the computational capabilities of processors in both low- and high-end embedded systems. This challenge, which we refer to as the “security processing gap,” is compounded by in- creases in the amounts of data manipulated and the data rates that need to be achieved. Equally daunting is the “battery gap” in battery-powered embedded systems, which is caused by the disparity between rapidly increasing energy requirements for secure operation and slow improvements in battery technology. The final challenge is the “assurance gap,” which relates to the gap between functional security measures (e.g., security services, protocols, and their constituent cryptographic algorithms) and actual secure implementations. This paper provides an introduction to the challenges involved in secure embedded system design, discusses recent advances in addressing them, and identifies opportunities for future research.
Why these cybersecurity researchers are automating vulnerability assessments
The researchers' goal has translated into what they are calling the Online CYber Security System (OCYSS) support service. OCYSS is an interdisciplinary project employing academics with backgrounds in cybersecurity and information integration. The end game is to rapidly compile information on system vulnerabilities and alert organizations that may be affected by the newly-discerned weaknesses.
Leveraging the Multi-Stakeholder Nature of Cyber Security
The role of OCYSS is to effectively and efficiently integrate expert and user inputs, capturing commonly uncertain vulnerability levels of individual components as well as vulnerabilities arising from the interaction/combination of these components, to efficiently deliver appropriate, balanced, informed and up-to-date threat analysis and CyS decision support to users.
Importantly, the OCYSS framework:
- Addresses the limited availability of CyS experts by comprehensively capturing and aggregating their insight and expertise to assess the vulnerability, including associated levels of uncertainty, of individual system components (e.g. intrusion detection, encryption) and their interactions (e.g. SSL 3.0 and weak password). This information is captured centrally by OCYSS and updated regularly.
Convergence Center for Cybersecurity and Innovation
CCCI
