November 2016

With the continuing frequency, intensity, and adverse consequences of cyber-attacks, disruptions, hazards, and other threats to federal, state, and local governments, the military, businesses, and the critical infrastructure, the need for trustworthy secure systems has never been more important to the long-term economic and national security interests of the United States. Engineering-based solutions are essential to managing the growing complexity, dynamicity, and interconnectedness of today’s systems, as exemplified by cyber-physical systems and systems-of-systems, including the Internet of Things.

This publication addresses the engineering-driven perspective and actions necessary to develop more defensible and survivable systems, inclusive of the machine, physical, and human components that compose the systems and the capabilities and services delivered by those systems. It starts with and builds upon a set of well-established International Standards for systems and software engineering published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and infuses systems security engineering methods, practices, and techniques into those systems and software engineering activities. The objective is to address security issues from a stakeholder protection needs, concerns, and requirements perspective and to use established engineering processes to ensure that such needs, concerns, and requirements are addressed with appropriate fidelity and rigor, early and in a sustainable manner throughout the life cycle of the system.

As China hosts executives from global tech companies at its World Internet Conference, human rights advocates are warning that online censorship in the country is only getting worse.

Representatives of US firms will rub shoulders with their counterparts from Chinese tech giants at the event, which begins Nov 16 in the sleepy river town of Wuzhen in eastern China. Chinese leaders have typically used the conference to push their doctrine of "internet sovereignty," under which countries would impose their own online borders and regulations. China's goal "poses a real threat to the global and open nature of the internet," said Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International. The government's use of the grand title "World Internet Conference" despite China's restrictions has spawned a mocking nickname from local web users who've labeled it the "local area internet conference."