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For various IT systems security is considered to be a key quality factor. In particular, for health care systems security is of uttermost importance, as it is related to patients’ health and safety. Risk assessment is an important activity in security management; it aims at identifying assets, threats and vulnerabilities, analysis of implemented countermeasures and their effectiveness in mitigating risks. This paper discusses a new risk assessment method, in which risk calculation is based on Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) approach. FCMs are used to capture dependencies between assets and FCM based reasoning is applied to aggregate risks assigned to lower-level assets (e.g. hardware, software modules, communications, people) to such high level assets as services, maintained data and processes. An application of the method is studied on an example of e-health system providing remote telemonitoring, data storage and teleconsultation services. Lessons learned indicate, that the proposed method is an efficient and low-cost approach, giving instantaneous feedback and enabling reasoning on effectiveness of security system.

The paper reports an application of Architecture-based Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) for early evaluation of the Dynamic Map architecture. The Dynamic Map is a complex information system, composed of spatial databases, storing static and dynamic data relevant for urban traffic, as well as a set of software modules responsible for data collection, interpretation and provision. Due to the complexity of the system, its size and key importance of its services to other subsystems, we decided to perform architecture evaluation using the ATAM method. To facilitate the task new tools supporting ATAM based assessment are proposed: Scenario Influence Matrix and Architectural Decision Matrix. Taking as example an excerpt from the system architecture, we present how they were used during the architecture evaluation. The gathered experience confirm usefulness of the tools, enabling ATAM to help detecting real flaws in a design and identify potential risks.

This paper presents the Dynamic Map system, one of the key products of the INSIGMA Project. The main focus is on the map and dynamic data storage subsystem, which utilizes a spatial database and is based on ontologies. First, the data models used are described, including the OpenStreetMap-based structure for the static map and the ontology-driven structure for dynamic parameters and events. The approach to generation of database structures from OWL is described in detail, followed by descriptions of the OSM import process, the GPS tracker module, the sensor state analyzer and the event interpreter. Finally, the planned future enhancements are outlined and discussed.

The paper presents IOEM, a methodology for ontology development elaborated for the INSIGMA project. Although prepared for a particular use, the methodology is quite general and can be used in a large variety of IT projects requiring ontology components. It is particularly suitable for large and geographically distributed software projects. The methodology is oriented towards applications of ontologies in various phases of a software lifecycle: development and run-time.