SAVE: Security & safety by model-based systems engineering on the example of automotive industry

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems (CPS), like autonomous vehicles, are intelligent and networked. The development of such systems requires interdisciplinary cooperation between different stakeholders. A lack of system understanding between stakeholders can lead to unidentified security threats & safety hazards, resulting in high costs in product development. In particular, a lack of an integrative consideration of security threats & safety hazards can compromise safety compliance for CPS. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) improves the understanding of systems between stakeholders by additionally creating supporting models. However, MBSE approaches only partially address security threats & safety hazards. In particular, their integrative consideration is not taken into account. Established security & safety approaches either are only applicable to specific disciplines or only partially consider security threats & safety hazards. In this paper we present a method that enables the early identification of safety relevant security threats. The method is designed to be applied in workshops with an interdisciplinary team of stakeholders and is used to determine initial results for the system architecture design phase. We illustrate our approach with the example of the automotive sector. To build a realistic system architecture we identified 18 architectural vehicle components including relevant architectural constraints. Finally, we present an evaluation of the method, based on a workshop with 30 master students.