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/ Journal Issues / Focus on Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate / Bridging Fault Tolerance and Game Theory for Assuring Cyberspace

Bridging Fault Tolerance and Game Theory for Assuring Cyberspace

Published in Journal of Cyber Security and Information Systems
Volume: 4 Number: 1 - Focus on Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate

Authors: Dr. Kevin A. Kwiat and Charles A. Kamhoua
Posted: 03/08/2016 | Leave a Comment

Two Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)-funded in-house efforts have shaped the way that AFRL/RI has bridged fault tolerance and game theory: “Fault Tolerance for Fight-Through (FTFT)” and “STORM: Survivability Through Optimizing Resilient Mechanisms”. FTFT was the forerunner of STORM. This was also a logical ordering from a historical perspective because fault tolerance is an older discipline than game theory. Fault-tolerant computing formally originated when John von Neumann introduced the concept to electronic computers. Although the introduction of game theory is also credited to von Neumann, it was much earlier, in 1837, that Charles Baggage gave evidence of fault tolerance’s existence. In [1], he wrote that a complicated formula could be algebraically arranged in several ways such that if the same values are assigned to the variables and the results agree, then the accuracy of the computation is secure. Babbage, of course, was referring to the work of clerical staff – the “computers” of his time. Note that Babbage advocated the use of diversity to secure a computation [1]. As digital computers developed, diversity became a key consideration when seeking fault tolerance, and throughout the history of computers, fault tolerance was often coupled with diversity for added assurance to computing [2-3]. In FTFT we used fault tolerance and diversity to address the more contemporary concern of cyber defense.

Fault–tolerant computing shares conceptual similarities with cyber defense. For example, fault tolerance deals with the detection and treatment of failures whereas cyber defense deals with the detection and treatment of compromises – both of which can cause a computer to deviate from its specification. Traditionally, fault-tolerant computing dealt with deviations stemming from randomly occurring faults and not faults resulting from intelligent attack. Whereas faults caused by natural-occurring phenomena are tolerable using established, standard approaches, attacker induced faults require a more aggressive approach that also ushers-in cyber defense. New challenges arise in the area of transforming fault tolerance to attack tolerance. As information systems become ever more complex and the interdependency between these systems increases, it is beyond the abilities of most system developers to predict or anticipate every type of component failure and cyber-attack. Attempting to predict and protect against every conceivable failure and attack soon becomes exceedingly cumbersome and costly. Therefore, the more realistic goal became the design of a fight-through capability that can absorb the damage and then rebound so that it can be the basis for restoration of critical services. We sought adaptations of fault-tolerant computing concepts to address this need in cyber defense. An optimum decision has to be made early in the design phase and during mission execution to maximize fault-tolerance. To achieve that, we found an appropriate source in military strategist John Boyd who conceived and developed the Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act Loop (OODA Loop) [4]. He applied the OODA Loop to the combat operations process including the engagement of fighter aircraft in aerial combat. Figure 1 shows a basic OODA Loop.

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References:

[1] Babbage, C., “On the Mathematical Powers of the Calculating Engine,” (Unpublished Manuscript) Buxton MS7, Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, December 1837, Printed in Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers, B. Randell (ed), Springer, 1974, pp. 17-52.

[2] Avizienis, A., Kelly, J. P. J. “Fault Tolerance by Design Diversity: Concepts and Experiments,” Computer, vol. 17, no. 8, pp. 67-80, August 1984.

[3] Avizienis, A., Laprie, J.-C., “Dependable Computing: From Concepts to Design Diversity,” IEEE, vol. 74, no. 5, pp. 629-638, May 1986.

[4] Frans P.B. Osinga, Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd, Routledge Publishing, 2006.

[5] Johnson, B., Design and Analysis of Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1989.

[6] Fault Tolerance for Fight Through (FTFT), AFRL Final Report, AFRL-RI-RS-TR-2013-039, February 2013.

[7] Kwiat, K., “Fault Tolerance for Fight-Through: A Basis for Strategic Survival,” Proceedings of the ACM 4th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (SIN) held in Sydney, Australia, November 2011.

[8] Myerson, R. “Game theory: analysis of conflict”, Harvard University Press, 1997.

[9] Roy, S. Ellis, C. Shiva, S. Dasgupta, D. Shandilya, V. Qishi, W. “A Survey of Game Theory as Applied to Network Security”, 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Honolulu, HI, USA. March 2010.

[10] Alpcan, T. and Basar T. “Network Security: A Decision and Game-Theoretic Approach”, Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (November 30, 2010)

[11] Kamhoua, C., Kwiat, K., Chatterjee, M., Park, J., and Hurley, P., “Replication and Diversity for Survivability in Cyberspace: A Game Theoretic Approach,” in Proceedings of the International Conference of information Warfare ( ICIW 2013) Denver, Colorado, USA, March 2013.

[12] Kamhoua, C., Kwiat, K., and Park, J., “Surviving in Cyberspace: A Game Theoretic Approach” in the Journal of Communications, Special Issue on Future Directions in Computing and Networking, Academy Publisher, Vol. 7, No 6, June 2012.

[13] Kamhoua, C., Hurley, P., Kwiat, K., and Park, J., “Resilient Voting Mechanisms for Mission Survivability in Cyberspace: Combining Replication and Diversity” in the International Journal of Network Security and Its Applications (IJNSA), Vol.4, No.4, July 2012.

[14] Kamhoua, C., Kwiat, L., Kwiat, K., Park, J., Zhao, M., Rodriguez, M., “Game Theoretic Modeling of Security and Interdependency in a Public Cloud” in the proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing, (IEEE CLOUD 2014) Anchorage, Alaska, June 2014.

[15] Kwiat, L., Kamhoua, C., Kwiat, K., Tang, J., and Martin, A., “Security-aware Virtual Machine Allocation in the Cloud: A Game Theoretic Approach” in the proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing, (IEEE CLOUD 2015) New York, New York, June-July 2015.

[16] Kamhoua, C., Martin, A., Tosh, D., Kwiat, K., Heitzenrater, C., Sengupta, S., “Cyber-threats Information Sharing in Cloud Computing: A game Theoretic Approach” in the proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Cloud Computing (CSCloud 2015), New York, November 2015.

[17] Kamhoua, C., Ruan, C., Martin, A., Kwiat, K., “On the Feasibility of an Open-Implementation Cloud Infrastructure: A Game Theoretic Analysis” in the proceedings of the 2015 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC 2015), Limassol, Cyprus, December 2015.

[18] Richards, C., Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd Applied to Business, Xlibris, 2004.

RELEASE STATEMENT

Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited: 88ABW-2015-5203 20151026

Authors

Dr. Kevin A. Kwiat
Dr. Kevin A. Kwiat
Dr. Kevin A. Kwiat is a Principal Computer Engineer in the Cyber Assurance Branch of the AFRL in Rome, NY where he has worked for over 28 years. He received his B.S. in Computer Science, B.A. in Mathematics from Utica College of Syracuse University, as well as his M.S. in Computer Engineering and the Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University. He is an NRC Adviser, acting as a surrogate of the NRC in monitoring his designated research associates and all matters relating to an associate’s research program fall under his purview.
Charles A. Kamhoua
Charles A. Kamhoua
Charles A. Kamhoua is a researcher at the Network Security Branch of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, MD, where he is responsible for conducting and directing basic research in the area of game theory applied to cyber security. Prior to joining the Army Research Laboratory, he was a researcher at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Rome, New York for 6 years and an educator in different academic institutions for more than 10 years. He has held visiting research positions at the University of Oxford and Harvard University. He has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. He has presented over 40 invited keynote and distinguished speeches and has co-organized over 10 conferences and workshops. He has mentored more than 50 young scholars, including students, postdocs, and AFRL Summer Faculty Fellowship scholars. He has been recognized for his scholarship and leadership with numerous prestigious awards, including the 2017 AFRL Information Directorate Basic Research Award “For Outstanding Achievements in Basic Research,” the 2017 Fred I. Diamond Award for the best paper published at AFRL’s Information Directorate, 40 Air Force Notable Achievement Awards, the 2016 FIU Charles E. Perry Young Alumni Visionary Award, the 2015 Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA), the 2015 NSBE Golden Torch Award—Pioneer of the Year, and selection to the 2015 Heidelberg Laureate Forum, to name a few. He received a B.S. in electronics from the University of Douala (ENSET), Cameroon, in 1999, an M.S. in Telecommunication and Networking from Florida International University (FIU) in 2008, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from FIU in 2011. He is currently an advisor for the National Research Council, a member of the FIU alumni association and ACM, and a senior member of IEEE.

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