Secure Software Systems

Threat Modeling

Threat analysis is the art of determining who or what are the most probable threats to our system. A threat, as we are aware, is an actor or action that is going to take advantage of a weakness or vulnerability to breach, incapacitate, or otherwise harm system security. That harm can come in any of the classic forms of confidentiality, integrity, or availability—the CIA triad.

BOX 12.2 Threats

A threat is a person, object, or situation that is likely to cause damage to our system.

• People include black hat hackers, rouge users, and innocent employees making simple mistakes.

• Objects include magnets next to disks, rocks, and bad software.

• Situations include fires, blackouts, and volcanos.

A threat model is the result of ...