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SENTINELS scope

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SENTINELS scope

The scope of SENTINELS is computer and network security, where, inspired by Anderson [2], by security we mean the following:

Security is a property of ICT, networks and information systems to keep functioning correctly in the face of malice, error or mischance.

``Malice'' is the operative word, indicating deliberate and malicious attacks. ``Error'' and ``mischance'' refer to attacks arising out of ignorance or bad luck.

Security and dependability are closely related concepts. Quoting from the recent Dependability Roadmap sponsored by the European Commission [12]:

``Dependability should be seen as: `the ability of a system to avoid failures that are more frequent or more severe and outage durations that are longer than acceptable to the users'. The dependability of a system is expressed in terms of the following attributes:

availability, involving readiness for use;
reliability, involving service continuity;
safety, involving non-occurrence of catastrophic consequences for the environment;
confidentiality, involving non-occurrence of unauthorized disclosure of information;
integrity, involving the prevention of unauthorized modification or deletion of data;
maintainability, involving the ability to conduct repairs and introduce evolutions.

Security encompasses confidentiality, integrity and availability relative to authorized users, as well as authentication and non-repudiation. It is therefore an important element of a dependable system, with particular reference to malicious interference.''

Dependability is much broader than security, which itself is already a broad topic. We would argue that SENTINELS should only be about security, and not about the all embracing dependability because:

The European Commission spends 55 M in the first call of FP6 on dependability. By comparison the SENTINELS budget is modest and SENTINELS could therefore not have a major impact on the whole dependability area.
Two Dutch research companion programs PROGRESS and Jacquard (see sections 2.12.2 and 2.12.6) are targeting the reliability of embedded systems and software systems respectively. SENTINELS must not create significant overlap with those programs.
The Dutch academic community is not a key player in dependability research, their strength is in security.

The next section details the SENTINELS vision and focus as based on a national consensus between Dutch security experts from finance, government, industry, research institutes and universities.

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