From Auto-adaptive to Survivable and Self-Regenerative Systems Successes, Challenges, and Future

This paper charts the course of adaptive behavior in intrusion tolerance, starting from pre-programmed and user-controlled reactive adaptation to highly sophisticated autonomic and cognitively driven adaptation. The goal of intrusion-tolerance is to provide mission continuity even under conditions of sustained cyber attacks. We describe key themes of our previous work in adaptive cyber defense and introduction of autonomic response capabilities and discuss challenges that warrant further research. We also discuss the potential impact of new trends in distributed systems, e.g., service-oriented architecture and cloud computing, on future survivable systems, and point out new opportunities for developing sophisticated auto-adaptive capabilities for increased survivability .