Home // International Journal On Advances in Security, volume 8, numbers 1 and 2, 2015 // View article

Reflections on Evolving Large-Scale Security Architectures

Authors:
Geir M. Køien

Keywords: Evolving Security; System Security; Security Architecture; Long-term security planning; Migration; Mitigation; Deprecation.

Abstract:
In this paper, we conduct an informal analysis of evolving large-scale security architectures. The 3rd generation partner project (3GPP) mobile systems is our example case and we shall investigate how these systems have evolved and how the security architecture has evolved with the system(s). The 3GPP systems not only represent a truly long-lived system family, but are also a massively successful system family. What once was an auxiliary voice-based infrastructure has evolved to become a main, and thereby critical, information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure for billions of people. The 25+ years of system evolution has not all been a linearly planned progression and the overall system is clearly also a product of its history. The goal of this paper is to capture some of the essence of security architecture evolution for critical ICT systems. What makes the evolution work and what may break it? These are important issues to analyse, and this paper aim at highlighting some of the aspects that play a role in security architecture evolution. In this sense, the paper is about research directions.

Pages: 60 to 78

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2015. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2015

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2636