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Using trust assumptions with security requirements

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Abstract

Assumptions are frequently made during requirements analysis of a system about the trustworthiness of its various components (including human components). These trust assumptions, whether implicit or explicit, affect the scope of the analysis, derivation of security requirements, and in some cases how functionality is realized. This paper presents trust assumptions in the context of analysis of security requirements. A running example shows how trust assumptions can be used by a requirements engineer to help define and limit the scope of analysis and to document the decisions made during the process. The paper concludes with a case study examining the impact of trust assumptions on software that uses the secure electronic transaction specification.

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Notes

  1. For space reasons, we will not include any further long descriptions of the trust assumptions.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Leverhulme Trust is gratefully acknowledged, as is the EU for supporting the E-LeGI project, number IST-002205. Thanks also go to Michael Jackson for many insights about problem frames and requirements. This paper is a revised and extended version of [59] and [60].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    Charles B. Haley, Robin C. Laney, Jonathan D. Moffett & Bashar Nuseibeh

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  1. Charles B. Haley
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  4. Bashar Nuseibeh
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Correspondence to Charles B. Haley.

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Haley, C.B., Laney, R.C., Moffett, J.D. et al. Using trust assumptions with security requirements. Requirements Eng 11, 138–151 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-005-0023-4

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