Emergent Properties & Security
Nathaniel Husted, Steven A. Myers · 2014
The notion of emergent properties is becoming common place in the physical and social sciences, with applications in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, economics, and sociology. Unfortunately, little attention has been given to the discussion of emergence in the realm of computer security, from either the attack or defense perspectives, despite there being examples of such attacks and defenses. We review the concept of emergence, discuss it in the context of computer security, argue that understanding such concepts is essential for securing our current and future systems, give examples of current attacks and defenses that make use of such concepts, and discuss the tools currently available to understand this field. We conclude by arguing that more focus needs to be given to the emergent perspective in information security, especially as we move forward to the Internet of Things and a world full of cyber-physical systems, as we believe many future attacks will make use of such ideas and defenses will require such insights.