Security Risk Analysis & Management

Lecture - 4

Security Risk Analysis & Requirements Engineering

 Introduction

Risk Analysis and Management Framework

Assets Threats Vulnerabilities

Risks
} Analysis

Security Measures } Management

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Definitions 1

The meanings of terms in this area is not universally

agreed. We will use the following
 Threat: Harm that can happen to an asset
 Impact: A measure of the seriousness of a threat
 Attack: A threatening event
 Attacker: The agent causing an attack (not necessarily
human)
 Vulnerability: a weakness in the system that makes an
attack more likely to succeed
 Risk: a quantified measure of the likelihood of a threat
being realised

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Definitions 2

 Risk Analysis involves the identification and

assessment of the levels of risk, calculated from the
 Values of assets
 Threats to the assets
 Their vulnerabilities and likelihood of exploitation
 Risk Management involves the identification, selection
and adoption of security measures justified by
 The identified risks to assets
 The reduction of these risks to acceptable levels

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Goals of Risk Analysis

 All assets have been identified

 All threats have been identified
 Their impact on assets has been valued
 All vulnerabilities have been identified and assessed

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Problems of Measuring Risk

Businesses normally wish to measure in money, but

 Many of the entities do not allow this
 Valuation of assets
– Value of data and in-house software - no market value
– Value of goodwill and customer confidence
 Likelihood of threats
– How relevant is past data to the calculation of future probabilities?

The nature of future attacks is unpredictable

The actions of future attackers are unpredictable
 Measurement of benefit from security measures
– Problems with the difference of two approximate quantities

How does an extra security measure affect a ~10-5 probability
of attack?

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Risk Levels
 Precise monetary values give a false precision
 Better to use levels, e.g.
 High, Medium, Low
– High: major impact on the organisation
– Medium: noticeable impact (“material” in auditing terms)
– Low: can be absorbed without difficulty
 1 - 10
 Express money values in levels, e.g.
 For a large University Department a possibility is
– High £1,000,000+
– Medium £1,000+
– Low < £1,000

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Risk Analysis Steps

 Decide on scope of analysis

 Set the system boundary
 Identification of assets & business processes
 Identification of threats and valuation of their impact on
assets (impact valuation)
 Identification and assessment of vulnerabilities to
threats
 Risk assessment

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Risk Analysis – Defining the Scope

 Draw a context diagram

 Decide on the boundary
 It will rarely be the computer!
 Make explicit assumptions about the security of
neighbouring domains
 Verify them!

Security Risk Analysis & Management

 Risk Analysis - Identification of
Assets
 Types of asset
 Hardware
 Software: purchased or developed programs
 Data
 People: who run the system
 Documentation: manuals, administrative procedures, etc
 Supplies: paper forms, magnetic media, printer liquid, etc
 Money
 Intangibles
– Goodwill
– Organisation confidence
– Organisation image

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 Risk Analysis – Impact Valuation
Identification and valuation of threats - for each group
of assets
 Identify threats, e.g. for stored data
 Loss of confidentiality
 Loss of integrity
 Loss of completeness
 Loss of availability (Denial of Service)
 For many asset types the only threat is loss of
availability
 Assess impact of threat
 Assess in levels, e.g H-M-L or 1 - 10
 This gives the valuation of the asset in the face of the threat

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 Risk Analysis – Process Analysis
 Every company or organisation has some processes
that are critical to its operation
 The criticality of a process may increase the impact
valuation of one or more assets identified
So
 Identify critical processes
 Review assets needed for critical processes
 Revise impact valuation of these assets

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 Risk Analysis – Vulnerabilities 1

 Identify vulnerabilities against a baseline system

 For risk analysis of an existing system
– Existing system with its known security measures and weaknesses
 For development of a new system
– Security facilities of the envisaged software, e.g. Windows NT
– Standard good practice, e.g. BS 7799 recommendations of good
practice

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 Risk Analysis – Vulnerabilities 2
For each threat
 Identify vulnerabilities
 How to exploit a threat successfully;
 Assess levels of likelihood - High, Medium, Low
 Of attempt
– Expensive attacks are less likely (e.g. brute-force attacks on encryption
keys)
 Successful exploitation of vulnerability;
 Combine them
Vuln Likelihood of Attempt
er abilit
y Low Med High

Low Low Low Med

Likelihood
Med Low Med High
of Success
High Low Med High

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 Risk Assessment

Assess risk
 If we had accurate probabilities and values, risk would
be
 Impact valuation x probability of threat x probability of exploitation
 Plus a correction factor for risk aversion
 Since we haven't, we construct matrices such as
Impact valuation
Risk Low Med High

Low Low Low Med

Vulnerability Med Low Med High
High Low Med High

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 Responses to Risk

Responses to risk
 Avoid it completely by withdrawing from an activity
 Accept it and do nothing
 Reduce it with security measures

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 Security Measures
Possible security measures
 Transfer the risk, e.g. insurance
 Reduce vulnerability
 Reduce likelihood of attempt
– e.g. publicise security measures in order to deter attackers
– e.g. competitive approach - the lion-hunter’s approach to security
 Reduce likelihood of success by preventive measures
– e.g. access control, encryption, firewall
 Reduce impact, e.g. use fire extinguisher / firewall
 Recovery measures, e.g. restoration from backup

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 Risk Management

 Identify possible security measures

 Decide which to choose
 Ensure complete coverage with confidence that:
– The selected security measures address all threats
– The results are consistent
– The expenditure and its benefits are commensurate with the risks

Consider doing less than the BS7799 recommendations?

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 Iterate

 Adding security measures changes the system

 Vulnerabilities may have been introduced
 After deciding on security measures, revisit the risk
analysis and management processes
 e.g. introduction of encryption of stored files may remove the threat to
Confidentiality but introduce a threat to Availability
– What happens if the secret key is lost?

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 Conclusion: Problems of Risk Analysis
and Management
 Lack of precision
 Volume of work and volume of output
 Integrating them into a ”normal” development process

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Current Risk Management Techniques

Security Risk Analysis & Requirements Engineering

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 Risk Management Techniques 1

Commercial tools
 Mostly rely on check lists
 CRAMM (CCTA Risk Assessment and Management Methodology):
 UK Government approach
 Supported by software
 PROTEUS (BSI) software:
 Gap analysis to identify necessary actions and existing strengths
 Comprehensive practical guidance and the text of BS 7799
 Reporting, for easy monitoring and maintenance
 Evidence to customers and auditors

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 Risk Management Techniques 2

Generic processes
 Threat trees (see below):
 Threat analysis
 Based on fault trees
 Only addresses the threat identification stage
 Attack trees (see below)
 Vulnerability analysis

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 Threat Trees 1

AT&T Bell Laboratories

 Categorisation of threats
 Disclosure / Integrity / Denial of service
 Categorisation of vulnerabilities by view
 Personnel view
 Physical view
 Operational view
 Communications view
 Network view
 Computing view
 Information view
[Amoroso, E., W.E. Kleppinger, and D. Majette, An Engineering
Approach to Secure System Analysis, Design and Integration.
AT&T Technical Journal, 1994. 73(5): p. 40-51.]

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 Threat Trees 2

 Model of system
 Calculate risks from
 Impact
Threats to
 Vulnerability Electronic Mail

Message
Originator Handling Recipient
O R Disclosure Integrity Denial of
M Service

Other
Subscribers
S

External O R M S E O R M S E O R M S E
Electronic E
Mail System

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 Attack Trees

 Tree Structure
 Goal is root node
 Ways of achieving goals are leaf nodes
 Costs can be associated with nodes

[Schneier, B, Secrets and Lies. 2000: John Wiley and Sons.]

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 Attack Tree Example
Goal: Read a specific message …
1. Convince sender to reveal message (OR)
1.1. Bribe user
1.2. Blackmail user
1.3 Threaten user
1.4. Fool user
2. Read message when it is being entered into the computer (OR)
2.1. Monitor electromagnetic emanations from computer screen (Countermeasure: use
a TEMPEST computer)
2.2. Visually monitor computer screen
2.3. Monitor video memory
2.4. Monitor video cables
3. Read message when it is being stored on sender's disk
(Countermeasure: use SFS to encrypt hard drive) (AND)
3.1 Get access to hard drive (Countermeasure: Put physical locks on all doors and
windows)
3.2. Read a file protected with SFS.
4. …..

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