Generative secure design, defined

Paper in proceeding, 2018

In software-intensive industries, companies face the constant challenge of not having enough security experts on staff in order to validate the design of the high-complexity projects they run. Many of these companies are now realizing that increasing automation in their secure development process is the only way forward in order to cope with the ultra-large scale of modern systems. This paper embraces that viewpoint. We chart the roadmap to the development of a generative design tool that iteratively produces several design alternatives, each attempting to solve the security goals by incorporating security mechanisms. The tool explores the possible solutions by starting from well-known security techniques and by creating variations via mutations and crossovers. By incorporating user feedback, the tool generates increasingly better design alternatives.