An Assurance Framework and Process for Hybrid Systems

Anisetti, Marco and Ardagna, Claudio A. and Bena, Nicola and Damiani, Ernesto

Security assurance is a discipline aiming to demonstrate that a target system holds some non/functional properties and behaves as expected. These techniques have been recently applied to the cloud, facing some critical issues especially when integrated within existing security processes and executed in a programmatic way. Furthermore, they pose significant costs when hybrid systems, mixing public and private infrastructures, are considered. In this paper, we present an assurance framework that implements an assurance process evaluating the trustworthiness of hybrid systems. The framework builds on a standard API-based interface supporting full and programmatic access to the functionalities of the framework. The process provides a transparent, non-invasive and automatic solution that does not interfere with the working of the target system. It builds on a Virtual Private Network (VPN)-based solution, to provide a smooth integration with target systems, in particular those mixing public and private clouds and corporate networks. A detailed walkthrough of the process along with a performance evaluation of the framework in a simulated scenario are presented.