Simulation Games Platform for Unintentional Perpetrator Attack Vector Identification

Abstract

Cyber-security protection of critical systems is one of the major challenges of today. Although the attacks typically originate from attackers with malicious intent, a substantial portion of attack vectors is enabled by unintentional perpetrators, i.e., insiders who cause an incident by negligence, carelessness, or lack of training. Prevention of these situations is challenging because insiders have better access to the organization's resources and hence, are more likely to cause harm. Moreover, the insider-mediated actions of an attack vector often come unrecognized by security admins as well as the insiders themselves. In this paper, we focus on the identification of the attack vector of unintentional perpetrators. To this end, we propose to employ specialized games that simulate the working period, while the player faces multiple dangers that might cause harm in their company. From the analysis of their actions, we discover the attack vector, which could be addressed before an actual attack happens. To reflect a variety of insiders and company environments, we introduce a platform for designing variants of these games, together with its architecture, an example of a simple game that can be created using the platform, and the used analysis method.