US 12,242,614 B2
Systems and methods for evaluating system-of-systems for cyber vulnerabilities
Louis A. Oddo, San Diego, CA (US); Charles Connors, Santee, CA (US); and Kenneth F. McKinney, San Diego, CA (US)
Assigned to NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Falls Church, VA (US)
Filed by Louis A. Oddo, San Diego, CA (US); Charles Connors, Santee, CA (US); and Kenneth F. McKinney, San Diego, CA (US)
Filed on Feb. 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/674,565.
Prior Publication US 2023/0259633 A1, Aug. 17, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 21/57 (2013.01)
CPC G06F 21/577 (2013.01) [G06F 2221/034 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer implemented method comprising:
receiving architecture description data and component description data for a system-of-systems (SoS), wherein the component description data characterizes a function of components of the SoS and internal connectivity between subsystems forming components of the SoS;
generating architecture definition file (ADF) data based on the architecture and component description data, wherein the ADF data identifies a connectivity of subcomponents of components of the SoS;
generating a model of a target SoS architecture for the SoS based on the ADF data;
evaluating the target SoS architecture for the SoS to identify one or more cyber-attack vectors with respect to the target SoS architecture;
executing a probabilistic analysis of the cyber-attack vectors to compute a probability for each cyber-attack vector indicating that a respective cyber-attack results in a mission failure by the SoS based on the target SoS architecture;
causing the at least one identified cyber-attack vector to be eliminated by updating the target SoS architecture for the SoS based on an associated computed probability for the at least one identified cyber-attack vector, such that the SoS implemented based on the updated target SoS architecture has a reduced vulnerability to a cyber-attack than the SoS implemented based on the target SoS architecture; and
generating output graphical user interface (GUI) display data for visualization on output device, the GUI display data including each identified cyber-attack vector and associated computed probability.