Learning from safety science: A way forward for studying cybersecurity incidents in organizations

Ebert, Nico; Schaltegger, Thierry; Ambuehl, Benjamin; Schöni, Lorin; Zimmermann, Verena; Knieps, Melanie

doi:10.1016/j.cose.2023.103435

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…For example, from a dominos conceptualization, failures are a cascade of initial failure conditions, and therefore resilience is about strengthening the robustness of the individual elements in the system (i.e., robustness of the individual dominos); from the Swiss cheese perspective, failures are an alignment of weaknesses in barriers, and therefore solutions are about putting in place sufficient barriers to limit propagation of threats; from the FRAM perspective, failures are the result of propagation of variability across functions, and therefore resilience is about dampening performance variability across systems functions. All these different approaches to resilience solutioning are relevant in cybersecurity because, as a complex STS, it compromises both the tractable technical and the intractable human and social dimensions (Ebert et al, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking the Complex Socio-Technical Systems Assemblages in Cybersecurity

Thinyane

2024

eccws

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The ensuing digital transformation means that cybersecurity solutioning increasingly occurs in the context of complex intractable socio-technical systems comprising non-technical elements, including human, social, and societal factors. These evolving cybersecurity ecosystem dynamics, at the confluence of cyber-physical-social spaces, present several challenges to techno-centric cybersecurity solutions including for risk assessment, threat modelling, and incident analysis. This paper unpacks the complexity of the cybersecurity domain and illustrates the associated socio-technical systems assemblages through a case study and situational analysis of a cybersecurity incident. It then reviews socio-technical systems analysis approaches from the safety management domain and discusses the alignment with and relevance for cybersecurity. The utility of these approaches is demonstrated by applying the functional resonance analysis method to the said cybersecurity incident. The situational analysis surfaces the diverse set of factors, including human, non-human, cultural, economic, institutional, and global, that directly played a role in the unfolding of the incident, and which need to be considered in risk assessment and incident analysis. Further, analysing the incident through the functional resonance analysis method shows the functional dependencies and cascade of performance variability between the different elements in this situation, which goes beyond simple, root-cause, linear causality, and purely technical explanations. Overall, the paper explicates the need for cybersecurity risk assessment and incident analysis that is commensurate with the complexity of underlying socio-technical cyber systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%