A Decision Support Tool for optimal configuration of Critical Infrastructures

The objective of the present work is to present a Decision Support System (DSS) aimed at suggesting to a Critical Infrastructure (CI) operator the optimal configuration in terms of deployed security functionalities. The optimization framework adopted by the proposed DSS uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for exploring the solution space and exploits an extended version of the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) for evaluating the security level of given configurations. Such security evaluation allows to provide CI operator with a holistic insight on the system security level, also by exploiting the knowledge stored in vulnerability databases such as the Common Vulnerability Exposure (CVE). The performance of three different implementations of the adopted GA are evaluated in realistic operational scenarios and the solutions are validated from a security point of view.