Sensitivity Analysis for Vulnerability Mitigation in Hybrid Networks

Abstract

The development of cyber-assured systems is a challenging task, particularly due to the cost and complexities associated with the modern hybrid networks architectures, as well as the recent advancements in cloud computing. For this reason, the early detection of vulnerabilities and threat strategies are vital for minimising the risks for enterprise networks configured with a variety of node types, which are called hybrid networks. Existing vulnerability assessment techniques are unable to exhaustively analyse all vulnerabilities in modern dynamic IT networks, which utilise a wide range of IoT and industrial control devices (ICS). This could lead to having a less optimal risk evaluation. In this paper, we present a novel framework to analyse the mitigation strategies for a variety of nodes, including traditional IT systems and their dependability on IoT devices, as well as industrial control systems. The framework adopts avoid, reduce, and manage as its core principles in characterising mitigation strategies. Our results confirmed the effectiveness of our mitigation strategy framework, which took node types, their criticality, and the network topology into account. Our results showed that our proposed framework was highly effective at reducing the risks in dynamic and resource constraint environments, in contrast to the existing techniques in the literature.