Use of Multi-attribute Utility Functions in Evaluating Security Systems

摘要

In analyzing security systems, we are concerned with protecting a building or facility from an attack by an adversary. Typically, we address the possibility that an adversary could enter a building and cause damage resulting in an immediate loss of life, or at least substantial disruption in the operations of the facility. In response to this setting, we implement security systems including devices, procedures, and facility upgrades designed to (a) prevent the adversary from entering, (b) detect and neutralize him if he does enter, and (c) harden the facility to minimize damage if an attack is carried out successfully. Although we have cast this in terms of physical protection of a building, the same general approach can be applied to non-physical attacks such as cyber attacks on a computer system. A rigorous analytic process is valuable for quantitatively evaluating an existing system, identifying its weaknesses, and proposing useful upgrades. As such, in this paper we describe an approach to assess the degree of overall protection provided by security measures.