Goals related to the architecture of MAFTIA

One of our main objectives is to define a reference model that provides a conceptual and architectural framework for ensuring the dependability of distributed applications in the face of a wide class of faults and attacks. The reference model will define concepts and terminology and provide a clear characterisation of the kind of systems the project will be addressing. It will also identify assumptions concerning the underlying infrastructure (e.g. regarding scalability, heterogeneity) about what is available to would-be attackers and about what issues should be application-level rather than infrastructure concerns.

The architectural framework will identify and specify the critical system components that are needed within the infrastructure, the relationships between these components, and the protocols that enable them and the application programs that rely on them to continue to function properly in the face of attacks. It is worth noting that the attacks of concern include not only those perpetrated by external penetrators, but also those carried out by malicious insiders, i.e., registered users and administrators who misuse their rights. Attacks are the primary class of targeted faults but the architecture will also consider accidental physical faults and design faults.