Large-scale systems security evolution: control theory approach

Rapidly expanding information technologies field clearly discovers tendency of increasing computer systems' heterogeneity and distribution level. In this paper authors reveal the hidden attributes of IT security evolution towards more assumptions about attacker power and less assertions on provided security level. The proposed view of IT security evolution makes it possible to classify security providing technologies in terms of control theory. This comparison, in turn, allows to borrow a rich theoretical framework of appropriate control theory methods (for non-linear, non-stationary, discrete-continuous automatic control systems) and adopt them for cyber security purposes. Moreover, proposed control theory view enables prediction of the future security evolution stages and allows to partially determine them.