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A prioritized cyber defense remediation plan is critical for effective risk management in Energy Delivery System (EDS). Due to the complexity of EDS in terms of heterogeneous nature blending Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS), scale and critical processes tasks, prioritized remediations should be applied gradually to protect critical assets. In this work, we propose a methodology for a prioritized cyber risk remediation plan by detecting and evaluating paths to critical nodes in EDS. We propose critical nodes characteristics evaluation based on nodes' architectural positions, a measure of centrality based on nodes' connectivity and frequency of network traffic, as well as the controlled amount of physical loads. The paper also examines the relationship between cost models of budget allocation for the removal of vulnerabilities on critical nodes and its impact on gradual readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we provide an introduction to simulation for cybersecurity and focus on three themes: (1) an overview of the cybersecurity domain; (2) a summary of notable simulation research efforts for cybersecurity; and (3) a proposed way forward on how simulations could broaden cybersecurity efforts. The overview of cybersecurity provides readers with a foundational perspective of cybersecurity in the light of targets, threats, and preventive measures. The simulation research section details the current role that simulation plays in cybersecurity, which mainly falls on representative environment building; test, evaluate, and explore; training and exercises; risk analysis and assessment; and humans in cybersecurity research. The proposed way forward section posits that the advancement of collecting and accessing sociotechnological data to inform models, the creation of new theoretical constructs, and the integration and improvement of behavioral models are needed to advance cybersecurity efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern days, cyber networks need continuous monitoring to keep the network secure and available to legitimate users. Cyber attackers use reconnaissance mission to collect critical network information and using that information, they make an advanced level cyber-attack plan. To thwart the reconnaissance mission and counterattack plan, the cyber defender needs to come up with a state-of-the-art cyber defense strategy. In this paper, we model a dynamic deception system (DDS) which will not only thwart reconnaissance mission but also steer the attacker towards fake network to achieve a fake goal state. In our model, we also capture the attacker's capability using a belief matrix which is a joint probability distribution over the security states and attacker types. Experiments conducted on the prototype implementation of our DDS confirm that the defender can make the decision whether to spend more resources or save resources based on attacker types and thwart reconnaissance mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective cyber risk management should include the use of insurance not only to transfer cyber risk but also to provide incentives for insured enterprises to invest in cyber self-protection. Research indicates that asymmetric information, correlated loss, and interdependent security issues make this difficult if insurers cannot monitor the cybersecurity efforts of the insured enterprises. To address this problem, this paper proposes the Cyber Risk Scoring and Mitigation (CRISM) tool, which estimates cyberattack probabilities by directly monitoring and scoring cyber risk based on assets at risk and continuously updated software vulnerabilities. CRISM also produces risk scores that allow organisations to optimally choose mitigation policies that can potentially reduce insurance premiums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, edge computing has emerged as a new concept in the computing paradigm that empowers several future technologies, such as 5G, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and the Internet of Things (IoT), by providing cloud computing facilities, as well as services to the end users. However, open communication among the entities in an edge based IoT environment makes it vulnerable to various potential attacks that are executed by an adversary. Device authentication is one of the prominent techniques in security that permits an IoT device to authenticate mutually with a cloud server with the help of an edge node. If authentication is successful, they establish a session key between them for secure communication. To achieve this goal, a novel device authentication and key management mechanism for the edge based IoT environment, called the lightweight authentication and key management scheme for the edge based IoT environment (LDAKM-EIoT), was designed. The detailed security analysis and formal security verification conducted by the widely used "Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA)" tool prove that the proposed LDAKM-EIoT is secure against several attack vectors that exist in the infrastructure of the edge based IoT environment. The elaborated comparative analysis of the proposed LDAKM-EIoT and different closely related schemes provides evidence that LDAKM-EIoT is more secure with less communication and computation costs. Finally, the network performance parameters are calculated and analyzed using the NS2 simulation to demonstrate the practical facets of the proposed LDAKM-EIoT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]