Model-based Evaluation of Scalability and Security Tradeoffs: a Case Study on a Multi-Service Platform

Abstract

Current ICT infrastructures are characterized by increasing requirements of reliability, security, performance, availability, adaptability. A relevant issue is represented by the scalability of the system with respect to the increasing number of users and applications, thus requiring a careful dimensioning of resources. Furthermore, new security issues to be faced arise from exposing applications and data to the Internet, thus requiring an attentive analysis of potential threats and the identification of stronger security mechanisms to be implemented, which may produce a negative impact on system performance and scalability properties. The paper presents a model-based evaluation of scalability and security tradeoffs of a multi-service web-based platform, by evaluating how the introduction of security mechanisms may lead to a degradation of performance properties. The evaluation focuses on the OPENNESS platform, a webbased platform providing different kind of services, to different categories of users. The evaluation aims at identifying the bottlenecks of the system, under different configurations, and assess the impact of security countermeasures which were identified by a thorough threat analysis activity previously carried out on the target system. The modeling activity has been carried out using the Stochastic Activity Networks (SANs) formalism, making full use of its characteristics of modularity and reusability. The analysis model is realized through the composition of a set of predefined template models, which facilitates the construction of the overall system model, and the evaluation of different configuration by composing them in different ways.

A data fusion technique to detect wireless network virtual jamming attacks

“…DOMINO runs the tests for each node by tracking each node's transmissions in the network. Therefore, the way the tests are computed might become time and resource consuming when the number of nodes is increased [12]. DOMINO's performance is assessed through the simulator NS.…”

A hybrid intrusion detection system for virtual jamming attacks on wireless networks

“…Jamming attacks have been widely investigated in the literature. Multiple authors have proposed several solutions to tackle the problem for a wide range of jamming attacks [7][8][9][10][11][12]. In [7], the authors present DOMINO, a piece of software installed in or near an Access Point (AP) in order to detect MAC layer greedy behaviour in 802.11 hotspots.…”

“…A number of Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSs) have been presented in the literature to detect a wide range of jamming threats [7][8][9][10][11][12]. A NIDS can be classified as a signature-based NIDS (also known as misuse-based NIDS) or an anomaly-based NIDS.…”

Continuous User Identity Verification for Trusted Operators in Control Rooms

“…However, the authentication server is one of the (powerful) nodes of the Secure! framework, which has been built with scalability [17] in mind so that its nodes can be easily adapted to sustain high computational loads.…”