Cloud Certification Process Validation Using Formal Methods

Abstract

Abstract. The importance of cloud-based systems is increasing constantly as they become crucial for completing tasks in an effective and affordable manner. Yet, their use is affected by concerns about the security of the data and applications provisioned through them. Security certification provides a means of increasing confidence in such systems, by establishing that they fulfil certain security properties of interest. Certification processes involve security property assessments against specific threat models. These processes may be based on self-assessment, testing, inspection or runtime monitoring of security properties, and/or combinations of such methods (hybrid certification). One important question for all such processes is whether they actually deliver what they promise. This question is open at the moment and is the focus of our work. To address it, we have developed an approach that formalises certification processes, by translating them in the language of the Prism model-checker and uses Prism to verify properties of interest on the model of the certification process, under specific environmental assumptions.

Cyber Insurance of Information Systems: Security and Privacy Cyber Insurance Contracts for ICT and Helathcare Organizations

“…This section describes the deployment infrastructure of CyberSure. It consists of four core components: i) the risk assessment tools (RIS 3 and NESSOS 4 ), ii) the certification tool (CUMULUS [21], [22]), iii) the insurance tool (HDI 5 ), and iv) the pilot systems (cloud and e-health platforms). The various components of the CyberSure platform are installed in the relevant host companies with on-line monitoring controls being deployed on the two pilot systems of the ICT provider and the healthcare organization, respectively.…”

“…They deploy CUMULUS certification models (e.g. [21], [22]) for this purpose and, based on automated (or semi-automated) certification carried out using them, they develop ways of dynamically adjusting risk estimates, insurance policies and premiums. In particular, the framework considers the case of dynamic certification, based on continuous monitoring, dynamic testing and hybrid combinations of them, adaptation of cyber insurance policies as the conditions of the cyber system operation evolve and new data become available, as well as fine-tuning and adjusting the risk associated to the insurance policies.…”

“…Every day the framework must monitor the availability of the system every half hour during the working period. The relevant SLA certification model (CM) is defined based on [21], [22].…”