Developing Threat Networks for Risk Analysis of Information Systems

Risk analysis in complex systems must cope with sophisticated threats arising from attackers exploiting security loopholes, or a chain of accidental events triggered by some environmental incident. A security model for complex IT systems, termed the ISM (Information Security Model) stores system and risk information in a database. Associated software uses the database information to develop threat networks and threat countermeasure diagrams as a support tool for the risk analyst. A software tool is under development for this model and this paper explores future developments for the model. In particular, the role of the threat network and its possible extensions are discussed in detail.