A Delphi study to recognize and assess systems of systems vulnerabilities

Context System of Systems (SoS) is an emerging paradigm by which independent systems collaborate by sharing resources and processes to achieve objectives that they could not achieve on their own. In this context, a number of emergent behaviors may arise that can undermine the security of the constituent systems. Objective We apply the Delphi method with the aims to improve our understanding of SoS security and related problems, and to investigate their possible causes and remedies. Method Experts on SoS expressed their opinions and reached consensus in a series of rounds by following a structured questionnaire. Results The results show that the experts found more consensus in disagreement than in agreement about some SoS characteristics, and on how SoS vulnerabilities could be identified and prevented. Conclusions From this study we learn that more work is needed to reach a shared understanding of SoS vulnerabilities, and we leverage expert feedback to outline some future research directions.