What is the "Four Question Framework For Threat Modeling"?
Four simple questions to have in mind when performing threat modeling.
I recently came across a LinkedIn Learning series by Adam Shostack regarding threat modeling. If you have a spare hour, check it out here, it's well worth a watch. (Pro tip: LinkedIn Learning memberships are usually free through your local library).
In this course, Adam describe a very simple mindset for threat modeling which is captured in four questions:
- What are we working on?
- The goal here is to define the scope of the threat modeling effort. Diagrams can help.
- What can go wrong?
- The goal here is to identify the threats. There are a lot of different ways to do this but Adam is particularly fond of the STRIDE framework.
- What are we going to do about it?
- This question helps to define mitigation efforts.
- Did we do a good job?
- Cybersecurity is always a never-ending process. A question like this isn't intended to be a conclusion but rather, a motivation to continually refine the threat modeling effort and output.
Additional reading
If you're curious for more info, check out these resources: