Verification, Validation, and Evaluation in Information Security Risk Management

Over the last four decades, various information security risk management (ISRM) approaches have emerged. However, there is a lack of sound verification, validation, and evaluation methods for these approaches. While restrictions, such as the impossibility of measuring exact values for probabilities and follow-up costs, obviously exist, verification, validation, and evaluation of research is essential in any field, and ISRM is no exception. Individual approaches exist, but so far there is no systematic overview of the available methods. Therefore we surveyed verification, validation and evaluation methods referenced in ISRM literature and discuss in which ISRM phases the methods should be applied. The selection of appropriate methods is demonstrated with a potential real-world example. This systematic analysis draws conclusions on the current status of ISRM verification, validation and evaluation and can serve as a reference for researchers and users of ISRM approaches who aim to establish trust in their results.

Over the last four decades, various information security risk management (ISRM) approaches have emerged. However, there is a lack of sound verification, validation, and evaluation methods for these approaches. While restrictions, such as the impossibility of measuring exact values for probabilities and follow-up costs, obviously exist, verification, validation, and evaluation of research is essential in any field, and ISRM is no exception. Individual approaches exist, but so far there is no systematic overview of the available methods. Therefore we surveyed verification, validation and evaluation methods referenced in ISRM literature and discuss in which ISRM phases the methods should be applied. The selection of appropriate methods is demonstrated with a potential real-world example. This systematic analysis draws conclusions on the current status of ISRM verification, validation and evaluation and can serve as a reference for researchers and users of ISRM approaches who aim to establish trust in their results.