Ontology-based risk propagation over digital twins

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12289336-B2
Application number	US-202318194791-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2023
Priority date	Apr 8, 2022
Publication date	Apr 29, 2025
Grant date	Apr 29, 2025

Abstract

Implementations are directed to methods, systems, and apparatus for ontology-based risk propagation over digital twins. Actions include obtaining knowledge graph data defining a knowledge graph including nodes and edges between the nodes, the nodes including asset nodes representing assets and process nodes representing processes; each edge representing a relation between nodes; determining, from the knowledge graph, an aggregated risk for a first process represented by a first process node, including: identifying, for the first process node, a set of incoming nodes, each incoming node comprising an asset node or a process node and being connected to the first process node by a respective edge; determining a direct risk for the first process; and determining an indirect risk for the first process; and generating, based on the aggregated risk for the first process node, a mitigation recommendation including actions for reducing the aggregated risk for the first process node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for mitigating cyber security risk of an enterprise network, the computer-implemented method being executed by one or more processors and comprising:
obtaining knowledge graph data defining a knowledge graph including nodes and edges between the nodes, the nodes including asset nodes representing assets and process nodes representing processes; each edge representing a relation between nodes;
determining, from the knowledge graph, an aggregated risk for a first process represented by a first process node, including:
identifying, for the first process node, a set of incoming nodes, each incoming node comprising an asset node or a process node and being connected to the first process node by a respective edge;
determining a direct risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and asset nodes of the set of incoming nodes; and
determining an indirect risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and process nodes of the set of incoming nodes; and

generating, based on the aggregated risk for the first process node, a mitigation recommendation including one or more actions for reducing the aggregated risk for the first process node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the direct risk for the first process node based on relations between the first process node and asset nodes of the set of incoming nodes comprises:
identifying an edge representing a relation between the first process node and a first asset node, the edge being associated with an importance value representing an amount of risk propagated from the first asset node to the first process node; and
determining the direct risk for the first process node by multiplying the importance value by a risk associated with the first asset node.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the indirect risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and process nodes of the set of incoming nodes comprises:
identifying an edge representing a relation between the first process node and a second process node, the edge being associated with an importance value representing an amount of risk propagated from the second process node to the first process node; and
determining the indirect risk for the first process node by multiplying the importance value by a risk associated with the second process node.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the direct risk for the first process is represented by a direct risk vector including multiple risk values each risk value being associated with a different aspect of risk.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein aspects of risk include availability risk, confidentiality risk, integrity risk, and safety risk.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the indirect risk for the first process is represented by an indirect risk vector including multiple risk values, each risk value being associated with the different aspect of risk.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the aggregated risk for the first process is represented by an aggregated risk vector including multiple risk values, each risk value being associated with the different aspect of risk.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining the aggregated risk for the first process comprises generating the aggregated risk vector, including selecting, for each of the different aspects of risk, the maximum risk value between the direct risk vector and indirect risk vector.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each edge is associated with an importance vector representing an amount of risk propagated between nodes connected by the edge.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
obtaining generic ontology data representing classes, properties, and relations for multiple use cases;
generating, from the generic ontology data, domain-specific ontology data representing classes, properties, and relations for a particular use case; and
generating the knowledge graph by mapping the generic ontology data to the domain-specific ontology data.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each edge represents a hierarchy relation, an abstraction relation, or a process dependency relation.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein a process dependency relation represents risk propagation through a workflow including multiple processes.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein a hierarchy relation represents risk propagation from an asset to a process that is correlated with the asset.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein an abstraction relation represents risk propagation from an asset to a process at a higher level of abstraction.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
automatically executing at least one of the one or more actions included in the mitigation recommendation.

16. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting, through a user interface, a graphical representation of the knowledge graph and an indication of the mitigation recommendation.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for mitigating cyber security risk of an enterprise network, the operations comprising:
obtaining knowledge graph data defining a knowledge graph including nodes and edges between the nodes, the nodes including asset nodes representing assets and process nodes representing processes; each edge representing a relation between nodes;
determining, from the knowledge graph, an aggregated risk for a first process represented by a first process node, including:
identifying, for the first process node, a set of incoming nodes, each incoming node comprising an asset node or a process node and being connected to the first process node by a respective edge;
determining a direct risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and asset nodes of the set of incoming nodes; and
determining an indirect risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and process nodes of the set of incoming nodes; and

generating, based on the aggregated risk for the first process node, a mitigation recommendation including one or more actions for reducing the aggregated risk for the first process node.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17 , wherein determining the direct risk for the first process node based on relations between the first process node and asset nodes of the set of incoming nodes comprises:
identifying an edge representing a relation between the first process node and a first asset node, the edge being associated with an importance value representing an amount of risk propagated from the first asset node to the first process node; and
determining the direct risk for the first process node by multiplying the importance value by a risk associated with the first asset node.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17 , wherein determining the indirect risk for the first process based on relations between the first process node and process nodes of the set of incoming nodes comprises:
identifying an edge representing a relation between the first process node and a second process node, the edge being associated with an importance value representing an amount of risk propagated from the second process node to the first process node; and
determining the indirect risk for the first process node by multiplying th

Assignees

• Accenture Global Solutions Ltd

Inventors

• Engelberg Gal
• Hadar Eitan
• Klein Dan
• Kuboszek Adrian

Classifications

• H04L63/1441

  Countermeasures against malicious traffic (countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002) · CPC title

• H04L63/1433 Primary

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title