Decision support for Cybersecurity risk planning

  • Authors:
  • Loren Paul Rees;Jason K. Deane;Terry R. Rakes;Wade H. Baker

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Business Information Technology, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States;Department of Business Information Technology, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States;Department of Business Information Technology, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States;Verizon Business Security Solutions, Ashburn, VA 20147, United States

  • Venue:
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Security countermeasures help ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of information systems by preventing or mitigating asset losses from Cybersecurity attacks. Due to uncertainty, the financial impact of threats attacking assets is often difficult to measure quantitatively, and thus it is difficult to prescribe which countermeasures to employ. In this research, we describe a decision support system for calculating the uncertain risk faced by an organization under cyber attack as a function of uncertain threat rates, countermeasure costs, and impacts on its assets. The system uses a genetic algorithm to search for the best combination of countermeasures, allowing the user to determine the preferred tradeoff between the cost of the portfolio and resulting risk. Data collected from manufacturing firms provide an example of results under realistic input conditions.