A Layered Graphical Model for Mission Attack Impact Analysis

Published

December 21, 2017

Author(s)

Changwei Liu, Anoop Singhal, Duminda Wijesekera

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a layered graphical model to analyze the mission impacts of attacks for forensic investigation. Our model has three layers: the upper layer models operational tasks and their dependencies; the middle layer reconstructs attack scenarios by using a forensic tool to find the causality between items of evidence; the lower level reconstructs potentially missing attack steps due to evidence missing from traditional forensic analysis methods. Based on the graphs produced from the three layers, our model computes mission impacts by using NIST NVD or forensics investigators' estimates. The case study shows our layered graphical model's usability, which can be useful for both forensic analysis and hardening the enterprise infrastructure.

Proceedings Title

2017 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS)

Conference Dates

October 9-11, 2017

Conference Location

Las Vegas, NV, US

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/CNS.2017.8228706

Local Download

Keywords

Mission Impact, Forensics Analysis, Cloud Computing, Attack Graphs

Citation

Liu, C. , Singhal, A. and Wijesekera, D. (2017), A Layered Graphical Model for Mission Attack Impact Analysis, 2017 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), Las Vegas, NV, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/CNS.2017.8228706, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=924102 (Accessed October 9, 2025)