A software framework for autonomic security in pervasive environments

In Systems Beyond 3G, protection fundamentally needs to be flexible. Due to heterogeneity of access networks and mobile devices, multiple security requirements (e.g., cryptographic algorithms, network security policies) must be addressed. The security infrastructure must also be reconfigurable (e.g., system patches to defeat new attacks) to cope with extremely dynamic conditions. Autonomic security applies the idea of flexibility to the security space itself. It goes a step further than simple adaptation by automating the entire reconfiguration process, thus making the security mechanisms self-responsive. We define an autonomic security framework to build such self-protecting systems. The framework is structured around the different steps of the reconfiguration activity: sense, analyze and respond. We show how flexible access control, authentication, and cryptographic security services can be built on top of our framework, illustrating how autonomic security can be implemented in the terminal and the network.