Performance Modelling of the Impact of Cyber Attacks on a Web-based Sales System

In this paper we present two performance models of a web-based sales system, one without the presence of an attack and the other with the presence of a denial of service attack. Models are formulated using the PEPA formalism. The PEPA eclipse plug-in is used to support the creation of the PEPA models for the web-based sales system and the automatic calculation of the performance measures identified to evaluate the models. The evaluation of the models illustrates how the performance of the warehouse's sale is negatively affected by denial of service attack through preventing some or all customers' orders from being fulfilled. The resultant delay on selling perishable products would result on products being discarded.