- 10.00 – 10.45: Trial lecture. Title: Dependable Distributed Systems
- 12.00 – 16.00: Public defence
The ordinary opponents are:
- First opponent: Professor Otto Johan Anshus, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Blanca Caminero Herráez, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
The chair of the committee is Associate Professor Boning Feng, OsloMet.
The leader of the public defence is Professor Ahmet Soylu, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Research Professor Haakon Bryhni, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet).
The co-supervisors are:
- Research Scientist Foivos Michelinkis, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet)
- Professor Olav Lysne, Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering (SimulaMet)
Abstract
Network services play a pivotal role in today’s society, serving the needs of businesses, governments and for individuals in their daily life. While we often take the seamless functionality of the Internet for granted, its growing use by Critical Services underscores the escalating importance of comprehending both resilience and security challenges.
The interconnected networks that make up the Internet are operated by various actors, such as enterprises, governmental agencies, and content delivery networks (CDNs), in addition to global and local Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Maintaining these network services is a complex task. Numerous components could potentially disrupt the service, and it is essential for network service operators to understand the risks associated with each component.
Objectives and Challenges in Network Security
Network security encompasses three fundamental objectives: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Confidentiality and integrity are often addressed together, due to shared common attack vectors and mitigation solutions. Ensuring availability, however, presents a distinctive challenge.
The primary focus of availability is to guarantee that the network service remains operational and usable. Although breaches in confidentiality and integrity can have indirect effects on availability, the nature of risk mitigation strategies differs significantly. In this setting, resilience and redundancy are central concepts.
Main research findings
Together, the papers in this thesis analyze the complete risk landscape applicable to delivering a resilient network for critical services. A majority of the research is performed on the Media Network Services (MNS) global video conferencing network, chosen for its relevance to risk management, and the applicability of results to other network operators.
This model stands as a testament to the integration of empirical findings into a practical framework, and the results can be generalized to a range of different networks.
By utilizing the 10-layer model, network operators will reduce their availability risk and deliver a higher quality service to their customers.
