Application of Security Metrics in a Metropolitan Network : A Case Study

The information security issues in the current communication networks demand the development of efficient methods to find security vulnerabilities and facilitate the decision making process. Security metric is a widely used concept in this area. The metrics can indicate the actual level of a specific security target and may determine the actions that should be taken. This work presents a case study about the security metrics implementation in the Open Access MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) of Pedreira, a city located on southeast of Brazil. The paper also presents a methodology for data gathering and analysis to support the security metrics implementation, the security metrics that were used in the case study, the metrics program results and some discussions about the benefits and disadvantages of the security metrics usage.