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Vulnerability

Threat-source

Threat Action

Category of Harm

Likelihood of Occurrence

Impact of Harm

E-signature Cost Benefit Assessment

System unavailability

Error, component failure, or act of God

Power failure, network failure, computer component failure, operator error, software failure, capacity constraint,  etc.

Inconvenience, distress or damage to standing or reputation

Moderate: failures will happen, but competently managed systems typically have availability records of 99% or better

Low: for fishery management decision support typical availability is adequate.  Even in the event of a systemic failure fishery management decision-making would continue and unavailability would be a short-term inconvenience.  Smaller scale failures, for instance a failure that prevents reporting from one processor, would be a minor inconvenience.

 

System unavailability

Vandalism

Internet security exploit such as denial-of-service attack

Inconvenience, distress or damage to standing or reputation

Low: this is not an high-profile Internet system and should not be a particularly attractive target.  Also, if necessary, the system could be hosted in a data center with an incident response capability that could deal with all but the most sophisticated attacks. 

Low: even in the event of a systemic failure fishery management decision-making would continue and unavailability would be a short-term inconvenience

 

System misuse

System administrator, operator, or other agency user

Abuse of insider knowledge and access for unauthorized use or release of information

Unauthorized release of sensitive information

Low: agency staff have significant incentives to behave appropriately and periodic training in ethics and computer security

Moderate: at worst, a release of personal or commercially sensitive information to unauthorized parties resulting in loss of confidentiality with an expected serious adverse effect on organizational operations.

 

Under-reporting or misreporting catch

Fisher and processor in collusion

Fisher and processor collude to under-report or misreport, to mislead fisheries managers and evade fisheries management controls

Harm to agency programs or public interests

Low: permitted parties have a lot to lose and there are enough checks and balances in the system to discourage fraud

Moderate: at worst, a serious adverse effect to public interests.  For example, in a commercial landing the species could be misreported from an overfished species to a less restricted species to evade a fisheries closure action, with potentially significant damage to the overfished species public resource

 

Impersonation in e-ticket transactions

Common criminal/identity thief

Impersonation using stolen identity credentials, to receive full market price for stolen fish

Inconvenience, distress or damage to standing or reputation

Low: e-ticket transactions take place in a context of fish delivery, and the fisher and processor are normally known to each other

Low: someone would be likely to notice and when detected, the impact could be effectively mitigated.  The impact would be limited to the parties whose identity and fish have been stolen

 

Impersonation in e-ticket transactions

Competitor

Impersonation using stolen identity credentials, to sell fish without debiting own quota

Inconvenience, distress or damage to standing or reputation

Low: a competitor might have a motive, but an electronic system does not make them more likely to have means or opportunity.  Risk exposure is not significantly different in electronic transactions than it is in paper transactions.

Low: impersonated parties would be likely to notice and when detected, the impact could be effectively mitigated

 

Repudiation to escape accountability

Customer (fisher or processor)

Signer claims "I didn't sign that"

Inconvenience, distress or damage to standing or reputation

Low: in most cases a customer who repudiated an e-ticket document submission could then be prosecuted for fishing or processing without meeting record-keeping and reporting obligations.  There will generally be independent evidence of the fishing or processing activity (follow the fish.)

Low: agency might expend effort to resolve, but the distress would be limited and short-term

 

Categories of Harm and Impact Definitions for reference

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