Security Friction Quotient for Zero Trust Identity Policy with Empirical Validation

Fuente: arXiv
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1. Verfasser: Youssef, Michel
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Youssef, Michel
author_facet Youssef, Michel
contents We define a practical method to quantify the trade-off between security and operational friction in modern identity-centric programs. We introduce the Security Friction Quotient (SFQ), a bounded composite index that combines a residual-risk estimator with empirically grounded friction terms (latency, failure rate, and helpdesk impact). We establish clarity properties (boundedness, monotonic response, and weight identifiability) with short proofs, then evaluate widely used Conditional Access policies over a 12-week horizon using Monte Carlo simulation (n = 2,000 runs per policy/scenario) with effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals. We further assess rank stability under 10,000 random weight draws, finding 95.5% preservation of policy ordering. Finally, we provide a 12-week passkey field observation from an enterprise-scale cohort (N = 1,200) that directionally aligns with the simulation's phishing-resistant MFA gains. The SFQ framework is designed to be reproducible, interpretable, and directly actionable for Zero Trust identity policy decisions, with artifacts and parameter ranges provided to support policy design, review, and continuous improvement.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_22663
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Security Friction Quotient for Zero Trust Identity Policy with Empirical Validation
Youssef, Michel
Cryptography and Security
Human-Computer Interaction
cs.CR, cs.HC
We define a practical method to quantify the trade-off between security and operational friction in modern identity-centric programs. We introduce the Security Friction Quotient (SFQ), a bounded composite index that combines a residual-risk estimator with empirically grounded friction terms (latency, failure rate, and helpdesk impact). We establish clarity properties (boundedness, monotonic response, and weight identifiability) with short proofs, then evaluate widely used Conditional Access policies over a 12-week horizon using Monte Carlo simulation (n = 2,000 runs per policy/scenario) with effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals. We further assess rank stability under 10,000 random weight draws, finding 95.5% preservation of policy ordering. Finally, we provide a 12-week passkey field observation from an enterprise-scale cohort (N = 1,200) that directionally aligns with the simulation's phishing-resistant MFA gains. The SFQ framework is designed to be reproducible, interpretable, and directly actionable for Zero Trust identity policy decisions, with artifacts and parameter ranges provided to support policy design, review, and continuous improvement.
title Security Friction Quotient for Zero Trust Identity Policy with Empirical Validation
topic Cryptography and Security
Human-Computer Interaction
cs.CR, cs.HC
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22663