Information system security: General systems paradigm and knowledge representation

This research applied General Systems Theory and principles to the problem of information systems security. The importance of this research centers on three issues. The first issue is the development of a general systems paradigm of information systems security. The paradigm was developed from isomorphic security principles found in biological and social systems. The second issue is a methodology for translating the high level information systems security paradigm into a computable knowledge representation form. The analogy paradigm was decomposed three levels and then translated into symbolic formulas. These mathematical formulas were then decomposed in a depth first manner to the primitive level for the sub-domain of denial of use of information. the third issue is validation of the computable knowledge representation scheme of semistructured and unstructured knowledge in a sub-domain of information systems security. The paradigm translation methodology was implicitly assessed by a three phased direct evaluation of the resulting knowledge representation scheme and the scheme's implementation as a knowledge base system.; The findings of this research indicate that knowledge based systems can be designed from high level paradigms by applying the process of hierarchical decomposition to the conceptual model. Components at the primitive level are identified to provide a structured approach to the initial knowledge representation scheme. Manual validation of the knowledge representation scheme by a panel of experts provided a more useful initial prototype knowledge base system. Incremental development of a comprehensive knowledge base system can be achieved on the basis of the initial prototype.