A Survey on Threat-Modeling Techniques: Protected Objects and Classification of Threats

Automation of production processes of enterprise today has enormous scales. The spread of automated control systems of technological processes (ACSTP) and their integration with corporate information systems have led to increase in proportion of successfully implemented malicious impacts on ACSTP. Occurrence of new types of attacks and increase in number of successfully implemented attacks cause the need to form protection systems of industrial systems. Designing protection system of ACSTP is multi-stage process, starting with collection of data on object of protection, its main components, information assets, links with other systems, and identification of relevant information security threats to the system. In this article analysis of structure of typical automated control system of technological process is carried out. The most important components of ACSTP from the point of view of information security are identified. The article defines the need to form project of protection system of ACSTP on the basis of monitoring data of events that occur in ACSTP. Main classes of system events from the point of view of information security are defined. The most typical information security threats for this type of automated systems are considered. Neutralization of groups of threats relevant to ACSTP is carried out by means of forming effective protection system. The typical composition of data protection system of ACSTP is defined. According to results of analysis, the correspondence between security events of ACSTP, current threat groups and typical means of information protection is determined. Choosing the composition of information security tools is complex task that requires a lot of time. To achieve greater efficiency in its solving, it is proposed to use decision support system and system of artificial intelligence. Authors developed functional model of selection of protection system's project using intelligent method of decision support with neural network in it.

In industrialized countries, such facilities are organized into an interconnected system — critical infrastructure in various fields of activity of states, and the information systems and telecommunications networks that support them into a critical information infrastructure. Purpose: The article examines the changing requirements for information security: from the requirements of maximum security to the more "lenient" requirements of the acceptable risk concept. The expediency of returning to the concept of maximizing security for critical information infrastructures is substantiated. Methods: As a model of the objective function of the protection system, the asymptotic information security management is considered, which makes it possible to gradually bring the required security values closer to the "ideal" ones during the operation of the control system. Results: The possibilities of implementing an asymptotic approach to information security management for various management system models developed in different countries are considered. The article analyzes the features of the implementation of the object and subject model of information security management systems in different operating conditions of the CII. The principal difference between the properties of these two models is the possibility of external control, which is typical for strict regulatory management (object model). Another (subject-based) model allows for flexibility and responsiveness in security management. In particular, the ability of the CI subject to promptly make independent decisions and take into account interactions with other CI (the subject model) reduces the response time of the management system to external influences. .When analyzing the prospects for the development of information security requirements, it is proposed to take into account not only national, but also international mechanisms for improving security. It is proposed to take into account for such mechanisms the threats and conditions that arise during hostilities or in the case of a terrorist threat. Practical relevance: The transition to the subject model when changing the target management paradigm within the framework of asymptotic management meets the requirements not only to reduce the hierarchy of management, but also to accelerate responses and. e their duplication.

Nowadays, information protection and cybersecurity are one of the urgent tasks defined by the normative documents of our country in the field of national security and defence. In a state of tense foreign policy conditions, information protection is an urgent problem of our society. This article presents a unified approach to the systematization of cyber threats. The essence of this approach is to eliminate uncertainties regarding the description of cyber threats. Based on the results of the analysis of existing works on this topic, the advantages and disadvantages of existing approaches are identified. It is important to note that the classification of vulnerabilities in information systems is currently developing rapidly, but the problem of classification of threats remains relevant. The vulnerability remains only a tool for realizing the existing threat. Given the possible risks of information security and cybersecurity of information systems and process control systems at critical infrastructure facilities, a study of known cyberattacks has been conducted. Based on the experience of the world community in the field of cybersecurity and information technology, the classification of methods of intrusion and types of attacks on information systems. Using a formalized approach with the help of drawings and diagrams, the vectors of attacks, the structure of the attack and the development of the information security incident are presented. The description of possible approaches to the development of cyber threat taxonomy is investigated and presented. The definition of key concepts is given. The results of this study can be useful for assessing information security risks, in particular in determining the criticality of the organization’s assets, in creating information security management systems and developing appropriate technical regulations to ensure the continuity of business processes of the organization.KeywordsCybersecurityTaxonomyVulnerabilityCyber threatClassificationAttack

Currently, information protection in automated systems has become an integral part of the vast majority of activities in various fields of human activity. The article examines the impact of threats on objects subject to protection. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the main cases of exposure to threats and the reaction of protective mechanisms to external intervention. Moreover, the protection system is considered as a complex, as several protective mechanisms with possible interrelationships and their own effectiveness in countering certain types of threats. The architecture of the protection system is imperfect and misses some threats in the protection area, which creates a danger to information. Based on the analysis of the main possible cases, a model of the information protection system with full overlap of threats is proposed, which allows taking into account the internal interrelationships of threats, the actual architecture of the protection system and possible objects of protection, and also allows revealing the structure of the information protection system, evaluating its effectiveness barriers to known types of threats or their combinations. The authors carried out a quantitative assessment of the optimal probabilities of protective mechanisms, which allow to ensure the least passage of threats in the area of protection. Unlike known models, the model of the information protection process with full overlap of threats allows you to take into account the internal relationships between threats, information protection systems and protection objects, and also allows you to reveal the structure of the system, highlight and evaluate the effectiveness of barriers that cover areas of vulnerability information protection mechanisms.

У статті представлено результати дослідження асоціативного поля концепту «інформаційна безпека». Теоретико-методологічною основою роботи стали новітні підходи до інформаційної безпеки як складової психологічної та інформаційної захищеності суспільства. Метою дослідження є виявлення асоціативного поля концепту «інформаційна безпека» за даними асоціативного експерименту з бакалаврами освітніх програм «Журналістика», «Міжнародна журналістика», «Реклама та зв’язки з громадськістю», «Видавнича справа та редагування», діяльність яких безпосередньо пов’язана з інформаційною сферою.Аналіз концепту «інформаційна безпека» як такого, що формується у свідомості споживача інформації через певне усвідомлення інформаційної та особистісної захищеності в площині соціальних комунікацій у мережі Інтернет, а також такого, що презентує мовну картину світу індивіда в інформаційну епоху, здійснювався на міждисциплінарному рівні.Зокрема, у дослідженні подано аналіз асоціативного поля концепту «інформаційна безпека» відповідно до отриманих логічних і граматичних реакцій ста вісімнадцяти респондентів. Аналіз за логічним компонентом виявив сім тематичних груп асоціацій: сфера захисту особистої інформації; сфера засобів масової інформації / соціальних мереж; сфера технологій; сфера державної інформаційної безпеки; соціальна сфера; психологічна захищеність; сфера захисту авторської інформації.Важливість поняття «інформаційна безпека» для цілої низки сфер інформаційної діяльності зумовлюється подальшим розвитком інформаційних технологій та технічних засобів обробки та захисту інформації, тому незаперечною є перспектива подальшого дослідження поняття в контексті виявлення рівня усвідомлення інформаційної безпеки як підґрунтя інформаційного та особистісного комфорту, а також для вивчення специфіки кореляції асоціативних полів концептів «інформаційна безпека», «інформаційна культура», «інформаційний комфорт», «інформаційний дискомфорт» тощо.

This article provides the modern cybersecurity trends directly related to aim ant tasks of criminals. It reflect the assessment of global technological risks discussed at 2020 World Economic Forum. The article covers estimations on increase on negative impact of geopolitical sharpness elements on economic potential of next generation technologies. Data fraud and cyberattacks are considered as priority key indicators at assessment of the most possible global risks, and attacks at informational infrastructure are equal to the cyberattacks risks at the rating of the most possible risks. Forecast indicates that cyberattacks are the most likely to be used as indirect conflicts between countries which look forward to expand their range on influence. In such situation the cybersecurity issues can`t stay on the second place or be the issues which should be solved at existence of direct cyber threats to the modern informational systems, IoT systems and SCADA. Obviously, we should revise the approaches to creation and development of modern informational technologies and cybersecurity issues should be considered as constituent element in development of modern informational systems from the very moment of its initiation, projecting, and on all stages of production and support. Reorientation of informational system developers to creation of new integrated platforms with cybersecurity constituent elements demands the research and implementation of new approaches to its development, as well as engagement of the world community at elaboration of relevant standards and protocols, which ensure the secure functioning of informational systems at world net. The article provides the basic requirements to constituent elements at development of concept of informational and cyber security in conditions of hybrid threats especially provides recommendations on organizational structure for informational security department and general principles to organize the activities and controls on informational and cyber protection. The article defines tasks for informational security department, provides the list of basic actions to secure information, and formulates the tasks, which should be ensured by technical infrastructure, organizational, procedural and hardware and technical actions to manage the informational security, and other principles to ensure informational security in development of concept of informational security within the hybrid threats conditions.

Purpose of the study: development of the theoretical foundations of information security through sound systematization, methods and means of information security based on the concept of interoperability. Methods of research: analysis of information interaction and threats in information interaction based on a standardized reference model of interoperability and synthesis of a systematic structured model of information security methods and tools in the context of the concept of interoperability. Result's: based on the analysis of scientific areas of interoperability and information security, it is proposed to supplement the field of interests of information security with a semantic level, in accordance with the reference model of interoperability. The analysis of information security threats to the object of protection implemented at the semantic level of information interaction has been performed. In the course of research, the need for information security at the semantic level has been proved to ensure the completeness of information interaction protection and to satisfy the interests of the information protection object. An information model for the development and implementation of information security methods is proposed to help achieve the objectives of the object of protection. A model of information security based on a reference model of interoperability is proposed. A model of information security audit and risk assessment based on a reference model of interoperability is proposed. Scientific novelty: It consists in a new approach to systematization of methods, means and increasing the sphere of interests of information security based on modern scientific ideas about the levels of information interaction in accordance with the concept of interoperability.

Data visualization in the field of information security (IS) is becoming an urgent task. The more informative the visual display for the analyst, the faster and better he will be able to get the result. The visualization method is described in the article, which allows to reduce the time needed for determination the actual IS threats when processing the IS threat model. In the classic way of displaying, threat models are a list or a table of several tens of printed pages. To process such a volume of data, information security analysts need to spend a lot of time. It remains likely that the analyst will lose sight of important data. The article proposes a method for visualizing the spatio-temporal model of IS threats in three-dimensional and two-dimensional form. When visualizing a threat model, a surface with axes is used: time, risk, information asset. The proposed visualization of the IS threat model allows the analyst to identify current threats in less time. Scope - management of information security. The result of this work is a way to visualize the IS threat model, taking into account the spatio-temporal factor.KeywordsInformation securitySpatio-temporal modelVisualization

At present, the security of information system is becoming one of the biggest challenges for all organizations. Information security is the protection of information and systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification, destruction in order to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability. In this article, we discuss the methodology for estimating the security of information systems based on hybrid modeling in the Any Logic environment. A conceptual model of the information protection system is described in this paper. Moreover, a data structure that allows the behavior of agents to access the information system is presented here.

Objective: the purpose of the entire work is to help system analysts involved in assessing the quality of information sys tems (IS) operation during their creation, operation, modernization, development, to form the appearance of a comprehensive probabilistic prediction methodology applicable in the interests of ensuring quality and safety, justifying acceptable risks, identifying significant threats and supporting the adoption of scientifically rational system decisions to proactively counter threats in IS life cycle. The purpose of the 3rd part of the work is to complete the detailing of the general methodological provisions on the probabilistic prediction of the quality of IS operation quality (taking into account the enlarged description of the approach in the 1st part of the article [1] and the presentation of the basics of detailing modeling using «black boxes» in the 2nd part of the article [2]) by proposing: • the formalization of complex modeled systems consisting of parallel-sequential structures formed from «black boxes» and combined using logical connections «AND», «OR»; • the methods of system analysis of the IS operation quality; • the main components of the appearance of a comprehensive methodology for the probabilistic predicting IS operation quality, used by system analysts in the interests of ensuring quality and safety, justifying acceptable risks, identifying significant threats and supporting the adoption of scientifically based system decisions to proactively counter threats in the life cycle of specific IS. Research methods include: methods of probability theory, methods of system analysis. The modeled system is formally represented by «black boxes» and complex systems in the form of parallel-sequential structures formed from «black boxes» combined using logical connections «AND», «OR». The obtained results of mathematical modeling are used in the interpretation of the original IS, in the interests of which the corresponding calculations are carried out. The result of the work as a whole is: based on the research results presented in [1, 2], methodological provisions have been created that form the main components of the appearance of a complex methodology for probabilistic prediction of IS operation quality in accordance with GOST R 59341-2021 «System engineering. Protection of information in system information management process». The use of the proposed methodological provisions is intended to help system analysts form the appearance of a versatile complex methodology of probabilistic prediction, applicable in the interests of ensuring quality and safety, justifying acceptable risks, identifying significant threats and supporting the adoption of scientifically sound system decisions to proactively counter threats in the life cycle of specific IS. Scientific novelty of the work: with the widespread introduction of modern information technology tools and systems, the problems associated with a comprehensive study of the IS operation quality remain acutely relevant. Despite the fact that many system engineering standards have appeared that recommend the use of probabilistic system analysis for various types of systems, in practice, the formation of a set of techniques applicable to predicting quality measures, justifying acceptable risks, identifying significant threats and supporting the adoption of scientifically sound system decisions in IS life cycle causes practical difficulties for system analysts. These difficulties and the use of subjective assessments are related not only to the versatility of the very concept of IS operation quality, but also to the complexity of mathematical formalization, taking into account the specifics of each system. As a result, many important aspects are beyond the analyst's field of consideration, specific quality measures turn out to be incommensurable on a single quantitative scale, and the inverse analytical tasks of proactive threat management in IS life cycle and constituent elements are not solved. I.e., in practice, there is a contradiction between the needs for system analysis of IS and the possibilities for solving urgent problems of system analysis. To overcome this contradiction, the proposed methodological provisions formulate the general purpose of IS operation in various areas applications – to ensure the reliability and timeliness of providing the necessary information, completeness, validity and safety of the information used for subsequent intended use. The main proposed components of the complex methodology of probabilistic prediction of IS operation quality have determined the scientific novelty of this work, focused precisely on achieving this general formulated goal of IS operation.

HOW MUCH ICT SECURITY HAS IMPROVED DURING THE LAST DECADE

It is easy to find news reports of incidents where an organization’s security has been compromised. For example, a laptop was lost or stolen, or a private server was accessed. These incidents are noteworthy because confidential data might have been lost. Modern society depends on the trusted storage, transmission, and consumption of information. Information is a valuable asset that is expected to be protected. Information security is often considered to consist of confidentiality, integrity, availability, and accountability (Blakley, McDermott, & Geer, 2002). Confidentiality is the protection of information against theft and eavesdropping. Integrity is the protection of information against unauthorized modification and masquerade. Availability refers to dependable access of users to authorized information, particularly in light of attacks such as denial of service against information systems. Accountability is the assignment of responsibilities and traceability of actions to all involved parties. Naturally, any organization has limited resources to dedicate to information security. An organization’s limited resources must be balanced against the value of its information assets and the possible threats against them. It is often said that information security is essentially a problem of risk management (Schneier, 2000). It is unreasonable to believe that all valuable information can be kept perfectly safe against all attacks (Decker, 2001). An attacker with unlimited determination and resources can accomplish anything. Given any defenses, there will always exist a possibility of successful compromise. Instead of eliminating all risks, a more practical approach is to strategically craft security defenses to mitigate or minimize risks to acceptable levels. In order to accomplish this goal, it is necessary to perform a methodical risk analysis (Peltier, 2005). This article gives an overview of the risk management process.

Purpose of the article: Analysis of intellectualized weapons using machine learning from the point of view of information security. Development of proposals for the deployment of work in the field of information security in similar products. Research method: System analysis of machine learning systems as objects of protection. Determination on the basis of the analysis of rational priority directions for improving these systems in terms of ensuring information security. Obtained result: New threats to information security arising from the use of weapons and military equipment with elements of artificial intelligence are presented. Machine learning systems are considered by the authors as an object of protection, which made it possible to determine the protected assets of such systems, their vulnerabilities, threats and possible attacks on them. The article analyzes the measures to neutralize the identified threats based on the taxonomy proposed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. The insufficiency of the existing regulatory methodological framework in the field of information protection to ensure the security of machine learning systems has been determined. An approach is proposed that should be used in the development and security assessment of systems using machine learning. Proposals for the deployment of work in the field of ensuring the security of intelligent weapons using machine learning technologies are presented.

The paper discusses the security concepts of authentication and authorization systems that rely on JSON Web Tokens. It highlights the challenge of implementing access control, which is a common issue for many modern web applications. The paper also explores the benefits of using JSON Web Tokens in large information ecosystems. Also this article examines the structure of JSON Web Tokens and their vulnerabilities. Authors analyzed 139 CVE database vulnerabilities related to JWT-based authentication. The analysis revealed a tendency of growth in “Critical” and “High” vulnerability severity level, with a simultaneous decrease in “Medium” and “Low” levels. Additionally, undiscovered vulnerabilities were found. JSON Web Tokens lifecycle was examined on basis of vulnerability analysis. Vulnerabilities characteristic of each stage were identified. The discovered vulnerabilities were grouped according to the stages of the JSON Web Tokens lifecycle. A universal classification of JSON Web Tokens security threats is proposed based on its lifecycle. The classification includes the minimum necessary and sufficient parameters to describe all possible threats. It can be used in information system design, threat modelling, security assessment, incident investigation and testing of existing systems. Based on the proposed classification, it is possible to construct potential attack vectors on JSON Web Tokens authentication systems. This approach is expected to reduce the resources required to secure JWT-based systems.

Approaches to the application of methods of system analysis to solve problems related to information security of enterprises in transport, which have a complex IT structure with a large number of components. It is shown that the active expansion of the areas of informatization of the transport industry, especially in the segment of mobile, distributed and wireless technologies, is accompanied by the emergence of new threats to information security. It is shown that in order to build an effective information security system, the selection and implementation of adequate technical means of protection should be preceded by a stage of description, analysis and modeling of threats, vulnerabilities, followed by calculation of risks for IS and determining the optimal strategy for information security system. After evaluating the different NIB options according to several criteria, a decision is made: if the recommendations coincide, the optimal solution is chosen with greater confidence. If there is a contradiction of recommendations, the final decision is made taking into account its advantages and disadvantages, for example, the strategy of information security system development is chosen, which turned out to be optimal for at least two criteria. If different NIB development strategies are obtained for all three criteria, it is necessary to vary the values of pessimism-optimism in the Hurwitz criterion or change the data, for example, about possible threats to IP or automated enterprise management system. An algorithm for modeling the decision-making process for selecting the optimal strategy for managing investment design components of the information security system for the transport business entity is proposed