A Game Theoretic Software Test-bed for Cyber Security Analysis of Critical Infrastructure

National critical infrastructures are vital to the functioning of modern societies and economies. The dependence on these infrastructures is so succinct that their incapacitation or destruction has a debilitating and cascading effect on national security. Critical infrastructure sectors ranging from financial services to power and transportation to communications and health care, all depend on massive information communication technology networks. Cyberspace is composed of numerous interconnected computers, servers and databases that hold critical data and allow critical infrastructures to function. Securing critical data in a cyberspace that holds against growing and evolving cyber threats is an important focus area for most countries across the world. A novel approach is proposed to assess the vulnerabilities of own networks against adversarial attackers, where the adversary’s perception of strengths and vulnerabilities are modelled using game theoretic techniques. The proposed game theoretic framework models the uncertainties of information with the players (attackers and defenders) in terms of their information sets and their behaviour is modelled and assessed using a probability and belief function framework. The attack-defence scenarios are exercised on a virtual cyber warfare test-bed to assess and evaluate vulnerability of cyber systems. Optimal strategies for attack and defence are computed for the players which are validated using simulation experiments on the cyber war-games testbed, the results of which are used for security analyses.