A Game Theoretic Software Test-bed for Cyber Security Analysis of Critical Infrastructure

Abstract

National critical infrastructures are vital to the functioning of modern societies and economies. The dependence on these infrastructures is so succinct that their incapacitation or destruction has a debilitating and cascading effect on national security. Critical infrastructure sectors ranging from financial services to power and transportation to communications and health care, all depend on massive information communication technology networks. Cyberspace is composed of numerous interconnected computers, servers and databases that hold critical data and allow critical infrastructures to function. Securing critical data in a cyberspace that holds against growing and evolving cyber threats is an important focus area for most countries across the world. A novel approach is proposed to assess the vulnerabilities of own networks against adversarial attackers, where the adversary's perception of strengths and vulnerabilities are modelled using game theoretic techniques. The proposed game theoretic framework models the uncertainties of information with the players (attackers and defenders) in terms of their information sets and their behaviour is modelled and assessed using a probability and belief function framework. The attack-defence scenarios are exercised on a virtual cyber warfare test-bed to assess and evaluate vulnerability of cyber systems. Optimal strategies for attack and defence are computed for the players which are validated using simulation experiments on the cyber war-games testbed, the results of which are used for security analyses.

Blockchain Enabled Reparations in Smart Buildings Cyber Physical System

“…Critical infrastructures of national importance are crucial to the operation of modern societies and economies and so is the need for security by design at the onset 26 .…”

A Survey of Adversarial Machine Learning in Cyber Warfare

“…The wargaming process comprises of the identification, defence, response, and recovery phases to a cyberattack in depth. Cyberwargames that use game Theory to model the attackers and defenders are designed by setting up a cyber test-bed to exercise cyberattack scenarios on a network environment [78][79][80] . In the game theoretic framework, two approaches have been used: a probabilistic framework and a bayesian belief framework where the attack and defender try to anticipate the opponent's strategy with complete and incomplete information with learning.…”

Adaptive Decision Support Systems for Cyber Security

“…when Y at the moment of making decisions not all the information is known; there is always an evaluation functional F={f jk }, which characterizes the assessment of the degree of acceptability of the decisions made in terms of "winning" or "losing" Y in the event that he chooses a solution k r R  for the state j z Z  . When implementing such a scheme, the quantitative side of the decision-making procedure in the conditions when the object and the environment "behave" antagonistically with respect to decision-making by the governing body implement methods of game theory [15,16].…”