Assessing the Understandability and Acceptance of Attack-Defense Trees for Modelling Security Requirements

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Broccia, Giovanna, ter Beek, Maurice H., Lafuente, Alberto Lluch, Spoletini, Paola, Ferrari, Alessio
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Broccia, Giovanna
ter Beek, Maurice H.
Lafuente, Alberto Lluch
Spoletini, Paola
Ferrari, Alessio
author_facet Broccia, Giovanna
ter Beek, Maurice H.
Lafuente, Alberto Lluch
Spoletini, Paola
Ferrari, Alessio
contents Context and Motivation Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and assess security requirements. ADTs are widely popular, as they can facilitate communication between different stakeholders involved in system security evaluation, and they are formal enough to be verified, e.g., with model checkers. Question/Problem While the quality of this notation has been primarily assessed quantitatively, its understandability has never been evaluated despite being mentioned as a key factor for its success. Principal idea/Results In this paper, we conduct an experiment with 25 human subjects to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation. The study focuses on performance-based variables and perception-based variables, with the aim of evaluating the relationship between these measures and how they might impact the practical use of the notation. The results confirm a good level of understandability of ADTs. Participants consider them useful, and they show intention to use them. Contribution This is the first study empirically supporting the understandability of ADTs, thereby contributing to the theory of security requirements engineering.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_06386
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing the Understandability and Acceptance of Attack-Defense Trees for Modelling Security Requirements
Broccia, Giovanna
ter Beek, Maurice H.
Lafuente, Alberto Lluch
Spoletini, Paola
Ferrari, Alessio
Software Engineering
Cryptography and Security
D.2.1
Context and Motivation Attack-Defense Trees (ADTs) are a graphical notation used to model and assess security requirements. ADTs are widely popular, as they can facilitate communication between different stakeholders involved in system security evaluation, and they are formal enough to be verified, e.g., with model checkers. Question/Problem While the quality of this notation has been primarily assessed quantitatively, its understandability has never been evaluated despite being mentioned as a key factor for its success. Principal idea/Results In this paper, we conduct an experiment with 25 human subjects to assess the understandability and user acceptance of the ADT notation. The study focuses on performance-based variables and perception-based variables, with the aim of evaluating the relationship between these measures and how they might impact the practical use of the notation. The results confirm a good level of understandability of ADTs. Participants consider them useful, and they show intention to use them. Contribution This is the first study empirically supporting the understandability of ADTs, thereby contributing to the theory of security requirements engineering.
title Assessing the Understandability and Acceptance of Attack-Defense Trees for Modelling Security Requirements
topic Software Engineering
Cryptography and Security
D.2.1
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.06386