This document discusses perspectives on software engineering and information security research from Massimo Felici. It provides an overview of Felici's background and experience in these areas. It also discusses the rationale for considering both software engineering and security, using examples like the 2011 Sony security breach. Felici then outlines some research perspectives including requirements analysis, risk analysis, system design and validation. Felici also discusses the impact of this research and potential future research directions.

1. Software Engineering and
Information Security
R&D Perspectives
Massimo Felici
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 1

2. Overview
• Background and Experience
• Software Engineering and Information Security: Rationale
• Complex Application Domain: Air Traffic Management
• Research Perspectives
– Requirements
– Risk Analysis
– Design and Validation
• Research Considerations
– Research Impact
• Future Research
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 2

3. Background and Experience
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 3

4. Rationale
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND
INFORMATION SECURITY
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 4

5. Sony Security Cyber Attack
• “Sony of Japan revealed that names, addresses, passwords
and possibly credit-card details of 77 million accounts were
stolen when hackers gained access to the network it runs in 60
countries for its PlayStation online-gaming system”
[The Economist, Apr 28th 2011]
• “Sony warns of almost 25 million extra user detail theft”
[BBC News, 3 May 2011]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 5

6. Security Attacks
Attacker Types and Techniques Attach Type, Time and Impact
[IBM Security Solutions, IBM X-Force® 2011 Mid-year Trend and Risk Report]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 6

7. Vulnerability Disclosures
[IBM Security Solutions, IBM X-Force® 2011 Mid-year Trend and Risk Report]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 7

8. Who should worry?
• Security is a concern across different domains and countries
• “An investigation of targeted intrusions into more than 70 global
companies, governments, and non-profit organizations during the last
five years”
[McAfee, 2011]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 8

9. Scenario
AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 9

10. Complex Application Domain
• Ongoing developments in the Air Traffic Management domain
• The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) project is the
European air traffic control infrastructure modernisation programme.
SESAR aims at developing the new generation Air Traffic
Management system capable of ensuring the safety and fluidity of air
transport worldwide over the next 30 years
• Overall features
– Large-Scale... European (and beyond) wide systems
– Complex ICT
– Stringent security requirements along side other key
Performance Indicators (e.g. Safety)
– Deployments of new ICT involving operational changes
– Human factors, changes in ICT affecting work practices
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 10

11. Air Traffic Management
Today The SESAR ATM System
[SESAR Release, SESAR Joint Undertaking 2011]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 11

12. System Wide Information Management
SWIM Infrastructure System Security Design
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 12

13. Research
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND
INFORMATION SECURITY
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 13

14. Ensuring Trustworthiness and Security in Service Composition
Socio-Technical Security Requirements
Problem: ensuring trustworthiness and
security in service composition
Modelling and Validation:
socio-technical security requirements
Context: operational accounts of ATM
practice highlight information exchange
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 14

15. Requirements Evolution
Problem: understanding requirements
changes, requirements evolution
• Avionics case study
• Safety-critical software
• Empirical analysis of
requirements changes
• Functional analysis of
requirements changes
• Architecture stability
• Quantitative accounts of
requirements changes
• Requirements evolution
modelling
[Felici, 2004]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 15

16. Security Engineering for Lifelong Evolvable Systems
Security Model-Driven Risk Analysis
Problem: assessing impact of changes [Felici et al., 2011]
on critical security properties
Modelling: structured (CORAS) models
elicited to perform risk analysis
Validation: shift of risk perceptions
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 16

17. Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Design and
Dependability of Computer-Based Systems Evaluation of Dependability
Emerging Technological Risk
• Provides a multidisciplinary
account of technology risk
• Reviews different case
studies
• Identifies classes of socio-
technical hazards
– how technological risk crosses
organizational boundaries
– how technological trajectories
S. Anderson, M. Felici
and evolution develop
Emerging Technological Risk
Underpinning the Risk of Technology Innovation
– how social behaviour shapes,
and is shaped by, technology
Springer, 2012
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 17

18. System Engineering for Security & Dependability
Security & Dependability Patterns
Problem: Security & Dependability Context: supporting organisational work
Patterns to design and implement ICT practice to deal with emerging threats
Validation: Security & Dependability
Patterns enabling resilient processes
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 18

19. Trust Observations
Problem: validating new operational
concepts and system configurations
• Empirical analysis of an operational account of trust in
validation exercises
• Trust observations highlight how different system
configurations support work practices
[Felici et al., 2011]
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 19

20. Summary
• Information security is a real problem in different complex
application domains
– Air Traffic Management
• Research Perspectives
– Requirements problems: validation and evolution
– Socio-technical Risk Analysis: modelling and social
perspectives of risk analysis
– Validation: Dependability, Resilience, Trust
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 20

21. Research Considerations
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND
INFORMATION SECURITY
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 21

22. Research Remarks
• Engineering software systems for security and trustworthiness
requires dealing with subtle complexities
• It is necessary to combine diverse methodologies
throughout software development and deployment
• My research is concerned with supporting engineering
software and understanding software complexities (e.g. in
terms of critical features) in different development phases
(e.g. validation) and application domains
– Multidisciplinary research
– Socio-technical systems
– Dependability, Risk, Trust
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 22

23. Research Impact: ATM Community
• Exploited PhD on requirements evolution within the EU
SecureChange project
• Exploited Dependability, Risk and Trust studies to support SME in
related EU ICT projects
• Conducted case studies drawn from the ATM domain
• Led Edinburgh University engagement in the INNOVATE (INNOvation
through Validation for Air Transportation in Europe) consortium,
Modelling Support to Validation, Associate Partners of SESAR JU
• Visibility: Work on Trust published, and also linked in SKYbrary (the
online ATM reference collection for aviation safety knowledge)
• Visibility: Consulting Editor for the US FAA (Federal Aviation
Administration) International Journal of Applied Aviation
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 23

24. Supporting European Commission
• Co-organised a networking session, on Privacy, Identity Management
and Dependability in Emerging ICT-based Interaction Scenarios:
Trustworthy Fulfillment of Requirements beyond purely Technological
Innovation, at ICT 2008
• Appointed by the European Commission, Information Society and
Media Directorate, Trust and Security, as Independent
Expert/Reviewer for industry-led ICT projects
– PrimeLife, Privacy and Identity Management in Europe for Life
– WebSand, Server-driven Outbound Web-application Sandboxing
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 24

25. Another Application Domain: Healthcare
Recently, started collaborating and extending research work in
Healthcare domains
• Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh
Anderson, S., Fairbrother, P., Felici, M., Hanley, J., McKinstry, B. Ure,
J.: From Hazards to Resilience in Socio-Technical Healthcare
Systems. In Hollnagel, E., Rigaud, E., Besnard, D. (Eds.),
Proceedings of the fourth Resilience Engineering Symposium, pp.15-
21 (2011)
• Warwick Medical School, The University of Warwick
Sujan, M.-A., Felici, M.: Combining Failure Mode and Functional
Resonance Analyses in Healthcare Settings. In Proceedings of
SAFECOMP 2012, the 31st International Conference on Computer
Safety, Reliability and Security, LNCS, Springer-Verlag (to appear)
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 25

26. Supporting Research Communities
• SAFECOMP, International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security
• DSN, IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks
• SERE, IEEE International Conference on Software Security and Reliability
• ISARCS, International ACM SigSoft Symposium on Architecting Critical Systems
...and many others
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 26

27. Future Research
• Software Engineering Foundations
– Empirical investigation of software engineering models (e.g.
requirements and design models)
– Further understanding evolution (e.g. requirements evolution)
– Modelling support to validation – INNOVATE (INNOvation
through Validation for Air Transportation in Europe)
• Security and Trust Observations
– Security and Trust as deployment strategies that offers a rich
range of trade-offs
– Empirical investigation and validation of different Security and
Trust models
• Dependability Benchmarking and Risk Analysis
– Socio-technical risk analysis
– Operational validation
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 27

28. THANK YOU
Massimo Felici © 2012 Software Engineering and Information Security 28