Tutorial M4 – System Life Cycle Security Engineering

Ms. Thuy D. Nguyen, Naval Postgraduate School
Dr. Cynthia E. Irvine, Naval Postgraduate School

Monday, December 6th, Full Day

Within the discipline of systems engineering, information systems security engineering (ISSE) applies information assurance principles across a system's life cycle. Grounded by underlying security principles and a rigorous methodology, ISSE follows the "system thinking" approach for assessing system security behaviors based on dependencies, interactions and emergent properties of its components in the context of a larger system.

This tutorial aims to provide attendees with an overview of the ISSE methodologies and processes for the design, implementation and assessment of risk-based security solutions. Concepts and practices of information systems security engineering are presented from a system life cycle perspective. Core topics include security requirement engineering, architecture and design analysis, system implementation assessment, requirements/ implementation traceability correspondence, security test and evaluation strategy, and risk management. These topics are structured to follow the NIST risk management framework. In each stage of the system development life cycle, the roles and responsibilities of the ISSE team are explained.

Through the tutorial, attendees will understand the importance of capturing user's needs in a tractable form to guide development and risk analysis activities. They will be familiar with the properties used to evaluate different security architectures, the inherent trust problems relating to the composition of systems and components, and security issues associated with the adaptation of existing systems to meet the need for technological and environmental evolution.

Outline

  1. Introduction to Information Systems Security Engineering. This module presents an overview of the following ISSE activities in a system development life cycle: (1) Discover Information Protection Needs; (2) Define System Security Requirements; (3) Design System Security Architecture; (4) Develop Detailed Security Design; (5) Implement System Security. This module also explores the Risk Management Framework defined by NIST and reviews ISSE responsibilities in the risk management cycle of a system to assess the effectiveness and residual risk of the system's protection mechanisms.
  2. Life Cycle Assurance Practices. This module emphasizes the "baked in" security strategy and the notions of defense in breadth and defense in depth. Topics to be covered include: (1) Defense in breadth: evaluating risk throughout a system's life cycle; (2) Defense in depth: protecting against attacks by employing appropriate protection mechanisms in keys areas; (3) Trust relationships among components in large/complex systems: composition, balanced assurance, interconnection.
  3. Security Requirement Engineering. This module presents a general security requirements engineering framework that includes the following activities: (1) Security requirements elicitation; (2) Threat/risk analysis; (3) Security requirements derivation; (4) Security requirements validation.
  4. Security Architecture and Design. This module focuses on the following: (1) Architectural properties and strategies for reasoning about the security architecture of a system; (2) Security design requirements and engineering activities for developing and analyzing the security design for a secure system.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that participants have knowledge of basic security concepts and principles, and an understanding of computer, software and network security fundamentals. In addition, familiarity with system life cycle assurance (including threat characterization and risk analysis) and general systems engineering processes would be useful.

About the Instructors

Ms. Thuy D. Nguyen is a Senior Research Associate of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. She has 25 years of experience and specializes in high assurance software and systems development, security evaluation and information systems security engineering. Ms. Nguyen performs research on high assurance platforms, trusted operating systems and separation kernels, secure collaborative applications, MLS federated architectures and dynamic security services. She is the lead architect/engineer of the MYSEA multilevel secure (MLS) project and oversees the construction of a MLS testbed. She co-authored a Common Criteria Protection Profile for highly robust separation kernels and a draft Computing Platform Architecture and Security Criteria for the High Assurance Platform Program. She has developed and taught courses on security requirements engineering and applied information systems security engineering. Prior to NPS, she developed commercial security products, including a TCSEC Class A1 security kernel.

Dr. Cynthia E. Irvine is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Information Systems Security Studies and Research (CISR) at the Naval Postgraduate School, where she has worked since 1994. She was the founding director of the Cebrowski Institute at NPS from 2001 to 2003. A graduate of Rice and Case Western Reserve Universities, her research centers on the design and construction of high assurance systems and multilevel security. The author on over 150 papers and reports on cyber security, she has supervised over 120 Masters and PhD students. Dr. Irvine has served on numerous government computer and network security committees and review boards. Her memberships include: the ACM, ASP (life), IEEE (Senior) and the IEEE Computer Society Golden Core. A recipient of the Navy Information Assurance Award as well as numerous research and service awards, she served as Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Security and Privacy from 2007 to 2009.