Survivability

["Craig Wright" <Craig.Wright () bdo com au>]

There seems to be some miscomprehension to the term survivability. This
is an areas that encompasses more than security alone and covers
dependability, fault-tolerance, safety engineering,high assurance,
performability, availability, and reliability.

Survivability research is not new, it has been about for nearly a decade
in information security circles. In fact, hazard and survival research
have been a mainstay in insurance and acturial endeavours for years.

"Survivability is the sum of the parts, not some of the parts. Current
security approaches to protect information systems have focused on
reventing attacks from being  successful by hardening defenses with
authentication, encryption, and a variety of layer-violating network
devices (i.e., firewalls, network address translators, intrusion
detection systems). What is not being captured is the survivability of
an entire system as a whole unit to failures or attack. While security
approaches may protect one layer of a networked system they often
introduce single-point-of-failure vulnerabilities in other layers." [1]

The Survivability-Over-Security (SOS) group includes CERT, a few
Universities and others. It is a research area funded by DARPA, NASA,
SAE and others.

Some sites:
http://www.sosresearch.org 
Http://www.cert.org/research/isw/isw2000/papers/40.pdf 

I am a little biased these days as I no longer act as a sys admin for
discrete systems. Being that I have to look from the overall
prespective, the security of a particular device has little imact other
than as a variable into the security of the system - the security of the
system being the key.

Regards,
Craig

[1] "A Survivability-Over-Security (SOS) Approach to Holistic
Cyber-Ecosystem Assurance" 2002 by William Yurcik and David Doss

Craig Wright
Manager of Information Systems

Direct +61 2 9286 5497
Craig.Wright () bdo com au

BDO Kendalls (NSW)
Level 19, 2 Market Street Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 2551 Sydney NSW 2001
Fax +61 2 9993 9497
www.bdo.com.au

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation in respect of matters arising within 
those States and Territories of Australia where such legislation exists.

The information in this email and any attachments is confidential.  If you are not the named addressee you must not 
read, print, copy, distribute, or use in any way this transmission or any information it contains.  If you have 
received this message in error, please notify the sender by return email, destroy all copies and delete it from your 
system. 

Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and not necessarily endorsed by BDO Kendalls.  
You may not rely on this message as advice unless subsequently confirmed by fax or letter signed by a Partner or 
Director of BDO Kendalls.  It is your responsibility to scan this communication and any files attached for computer 
viruses and other defects.  BDO Kendalls does not accept liability for any loss or damage however caused which may 
result from this communication or any files attached.  A full version of the BDO Kendalls disclaimer, and our Privacy 
statement, can be found on the BDO Kendalls website at http://www.bdo.com.au or by emailing administrator () bdo com au.

BDO Kendalls is a national association of separate partnerships and entities.