What is Survivability

This chapter introduces the survivability evaluation, especially on the corresponding evaluation criteria and modeling techniques. The content of this chapter includes an overview of the literature of computer system dependability or security evaluation techniques and their limitation. The concept of survivability and the techniques for modeling and evaluating survivability are introduced. In addition, the whole process of modeling and evaluating the survivability of an intrusion tolerant database system (ITDB) is shown as a case study. The discussion included in this chapter would facilitate the readers to understand the fundamental difference among reliability, availability, survivability, and related concepts. This chapter would also help information security professionals to learn the methods of measuring information security and survivability.