A Framework for Conceptual Characterization of Ontologies and its Application in the Cybersecurity Domain

Abstract

This thesis was a great personal challenge for me and my family. We have changed house, country, and continent, building a new life full of challenges and new things. Along the way, we have left many dear people behind. But with a lot of study, perseverance, and the help of many people, we have made it. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of them. I begin by expressing my gratitude to my advisor, Óscar Pastor López, who guided me along this path of study and research. It was years of great learning with him, I thank him for sharing his immense knowledge with me and for his support, patience, and dedication. More than a professor, he is an example to be followed, with a big sense of humor; always focused, and communicative, he supported me on this path. Thank you for accepting me on this journey as my advisor, but more for being my friend.Thanks to José Fabián Reyes Román, my co-advisor who also helped me during all the research and for reviewing the preliminary version of this thesis. I am grateful to my colleagues from the Accenture Israel Cyber R&D Lab (Moshe Hadad, Dan Klein, Gal Engelberg, and Ethan Hadar) who helped with their immense knowledge in cybersecurity. Thanks to my dear old friends and Prof. Renata Guizzardi and Prof. Giancarlo Guizzardi for their valuable advice and support during the course of this research work. Also, thanks to my colleagues Bruno Duarte Borlini and Cristine Grio for the countless philosophical and ontological discussions that opened me to new possibilities.Thanks to Vicente Javier Julian Inglada of DSIC, Ana Cidad Vila of ValgrAI, ix Prof. José Ignacio Panach Navarrete, and the other PROS@VRAIN team members and colleagues. For all of you, who believed in me, especially when I was weakest and thought that the end never to come.Besides my advisors and research team, I thank my thesis committee Prof.