Siyakha N Mthunzi
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Nature-inspired survivability: Prey-inspired survivability countermeasures for cloud computing security challenges Siyakha Njabuliso Mthunzi STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement of Staffordshire University for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 To my parents and my family In memory of my father, the late J.G. Mthunzi and to my mother M.G Mthunzi , who gave me invaluable educational opportunities and boundless permanence throughout my life. ii Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. To the best of my knowledge, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. Siyakha Njabuliso Mthunzi iii Acknowledgements Deepest gratitude to my principal supervisor Professor Elhadj Benkhelifa for the insightful guidance and supporting my thesis actively throughout the PhD journey. The continuous cooperation, relentless drive and exchange of ideas made this Thesis possible. Thanks to my secondary supervisor Dr Tomasz Bosakowski for the support and guidance. A special thanks to my colleagues in the Cloud Computing and Applications Research Laboratory at Staffordshire University, for the interesting discussions and constructive feedback. Many thanks especially to Lavorel Anaïs Léa Céline for the collaboration. No words can express my gratitude and thanks to my entire family, for the love and support, and the genuine caring you show whatever the weather. Your extraordinary self- sacrifice saw me through overwhelming obstacles. You are my heroes! I am grateful to my friends whose support and encouragement always motivates me to do better. Finally, a special shout-out to me for never giving up! Siyakha Njabuliso Mthunzi Staffordshire University iv Table of Contents Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v List of Tables viii List of Figures ix Abbreviations xiii List of publications xiv Abstract xv Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Existing security approaches 3 1.1.2 Survivability as a suitable mission for security 5 1.1.3 The need for bio-inspiration 6 1.2 Research hypotheses ......................................................................... 7 1.3 Research aim and objectives ............................................................. 8 1.4 Contribution to knowledge ............................................................... 9 1.5 Research methodology .................................................................... 10 1.5.1 Research philosophy 11 1.5.2 Research approach 12 1.5.3 Research design 13 1.6 Thesis outline ................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Literature review ............................................................................. 19 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 19 2.2 Cloud security challenges ................................................................ 20 2.2.1 Survey of countermeasures 24 2.3 Survivability context ....................................................................... 27 2.3.1 Analysis 35 2.4 Bio-inspired systems ....................................................................... 39 2.4.1 Prey survival against predation 44 2.5 Theoretic perspectives .................................................................... 46 2.5.1 Theoretical ecology 48 2.6 Summary ........................................................................................ 51 Chapter 3 A holistic taxonomy of cloud security challenges ........................ 52 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 52 3.2 Holistic approach ........................................................................... 53 3.2.1 Requirements 55 3.3 Review of existing classifications .................................................... 56 3.4 Proposed holistic taxonomy ........................................................... 77 v 3.5 Analysis .......................................................................................... 81 3.6 Summary ........................................................................................ 84 Chapter 4 A TRIZ-based approach for prey-inspired cloud computing survivability 85 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 85 4.2 Problem-driven design context ....................................................... 87 4.3 3-step concept transfer process ....................................................... 88 4.3.1 Retrieving concepts 89 4.3.2 Mapping concepts 90 4.3.3 Transferring concepts 92 4.4 TRIZ-based approach ..................................................................... 93 4.4.1 Applying the TRIZ 95 4.5 Pilot investigation of prey mechanisms using NetLogo simulator ....................................................................................... 110 4.5.1 Experiment 111 4.6 Summary ...................................................................................... 116 Chapter 5 Prey-inspired cloud computing survivability framework (Pi- CCSF) 117 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 117 5.1.1 Scope 118 5.2 Survivability-oriented design ......................................................... 120 5.2.1 Survivability mission 122 5.2.2 Survivability mission requirements 124 5.2.3 Survivable system requirements 124 5.3 Security systems design ................................................................. 128 5.4 Prey-inspired cloud computing survivability framework (Pi-CCSF) ..................................................................................... 129 5.4.1 Survivability strategy management (SSM) 131 5.4.2 Survivability monitoring (SM) 133 5.4.3 Survivability running state (SRS) 135 5.4.4 Survivability definition (SD) 136 5.5 Prey-inspired survivability mechanisms ......................................... 138 5.5.1 Decision system 139 5.5.2 Escalation system 141 5.6 Pi-CCSF’s overall survivability process flow ................................. 142 5.7 Discussion .................................................................................... 147 5.8 Summary ...................................................................................... 150 Chapter 6 Prey-inspired target-based decision-making technique (Pi- TBDM) for unpredictable survivability targets in cloud computing environments 151 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 151 vi 6.2 Fuzzy logic and its application to cloud survivability decision problem .......................................................................... 153 6.3 Target-based decision-making (TBDM) ........................................ 157 6.3.1 Construct a survivability decision matrix 160 6.3.2 Determine weights for main survivability decision functions 161 6.3.3 Rank survivability decision alternatives 162 6.4 Numeric example ......................................................................... 163 6.4.1 Semantic web platform 163 6.4.2 Netflix and Hulu 165 6.5 Summary ...................................................................................... 168 Chapter 7 Evaluating Pi-CCSF using Pi-CCSF simulator .......................... 170 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 170 7.2 Pi-CCSF simulator ........................................................................ 172 7.2.1 Environment 172 7.3 Simulation design ......................................................................... 176 7.3.1 Simulating base model with escalation 180 7.3.2 Experiments 182 7.4 Results and analysis ...................................................................... 185 7.4.1 The vitality of random and best actions 185 7.4.2 The vitality of actions and threshold values 188 7.4.3 Analysis 194 7.5 Summary ...................................................................................... 200 Chapter 8 Conclusion and recommendations .............................................. 201 8.1 Research process .......................................................................... 201 8.2 Thesis summary and contributions ............................................... 202 8.3 Limitations ................................................................................... 206 8.4 Future work .................................................................................. 206 References 208 Appendices 250 Appendix A – Definitions and Concepts ............................................................. 250 Appendix B - Cloud computing ........................................................................... 251 Appendix C – Pi-CCSF simulator code ............................................................... 260 Appendix D - Simulation results .......................................................................... 268 vii List of Tables Table 1. Research method per thesis contribution 15 Table 2. A summary of commonly discussed security challenges 22 Table 3. Summary of countermeasures in academia 26