Defensive Maneuver Cyber Platform Modeling with Stochastic Petri Nets

Distributed and parallel applications are critical information technology systems in multiple industries, including academia, military, government, financial, medical, and transportation. These applications present target rich environments for malicious attackers seeking to disrupt the confidentiality, integrity and availability of these systems. Applying the military concept of defense cyber maneuver to these systems can provide protection and defense mechanisms that allow survivability and operational continuity. Understanding the tradeoffs between information systems security and operational performance when applying maneuver principles is of interest to administrators, users, and researchers. To this end, we present a model of a defensive maneuver cyber platform using Stochastic Petri Nets. This model enables the understanding and evaluation of the costs and benefits of maneuverability in a distributed application environment, specifically focusing on moving target defense and deceptive defense strategies.