2020 - Argevide

Live data in assurance cases

Michał — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 09:36:51 +0000

System assurance with the use of assurance case should consider system changes and also operational data when necessary. The way to manage this is to use live data as evidence and update accordingly the argument assessment. The live data is the data generated directly by any system, not provided manually. Unlike documents used as evidence the live data can change at any moment of time.

We published a demonstration project presenting live data in an assurance case:

the input data is provided by a web service of the source system,
data feed is performed once a day, but it may well be more often, like every hour,
the assessment of the fact is updated based on the change in the evidence containing the live data,
assessment of claims supported by the given evidence is updated automatically,
the changes are logged by NOR-STA and may be reported to the user.

You can read more on this approach in NOR-STA on page Live data in system assurance monitoring.

To see a demo NOR-STA project with live data please use the form System assurance monitoring demo – covid-19 safety.

If you want learn more on use of live data in assurance cases in NOR-STA please contact us.

Artykuł Live data in assurance cases pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.

Assurance case reports fed with XML data

Michał — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 11:00:38 +0000

New reports in NOR-STA are fed with data in XML format. XML includes data about the argument, evidence, and the evaluations performed.

MS Word report template can directly use data through XML mapping, and advanced data processing is possible with Visual Basic scripts. The basic templates for assurance case reports and conformance reports with VBA scripts are available to NOR-STA users.

NOR-STA 7.4.3 released on November 3 brought new features:

assurance case reports to Word and PDF with XML data,
improved conformance reports to Word and PDF with full argument data in XML,
conformance summary report (PDF),
evidence list report (PDF),
project log,
improved last changes list in the project: filter for deleted elements and changes of one element

and other minor security, functionality and performance improvements.

Artykuł Assurance case reports fed with XML data pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.

Integration with Jira and Confluence

Michał — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 06:00:00 +0000

NOR-STA now allows for integration with Confluence and Jira servers, in addition to the existing integration with SharePoint. The assurance argument may directly refer to information in these systems.

At the same time, it is a step towards continuous assurance and the introduction of constant supervision over the timeliness of evidence and performed assessments. For SharePoint evidence now you have direct access to version history. Integration with Jira can be used to manage handling detected non-compliance or failures.

Reporting has also been extended to Word and PDF compliance reports powered by XML data. The report templates use mapping to XML data, which makes it easy to customize the structure and formatting of the report as needed.

NOR-STA 7.4.2 released on September 11 brought new features:

integration with Jira: references to issues in Jira projects;
integration with Confluence: references to pages in Confluence spaces;
integration with SharePoint extended with information on file status and version history;
new conformance reports to Word and PDF with XML data from NOR-STA;
enhanced automatic labeling function;
argument section features improved in basic view

and other minor security, functionality and performance improvements.

Artykuł Integration with Jira and Confluence pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.

Proposal of a scheme for IACS components cybersecurity certification published by JRC

Michał — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 13:09:58 +0000

Last week European Joint Research Centre published its Recommendations for the IACS Components Cybersecurity Certifications Scheme (ICCS). IACS (Industrial Automation & Control Systems) are used in industry including energy, transportation, manufacturing and health. The published scheme focuses on components of such systems, including PLC, RTU, SCADA, HMI and others).

ICCS is the result of European JRC ERNCIP project effort to achieve a consensus how to frame and conduct the cybersecurity certification of IACS components and achieve mutual recognition of Certificates across Europe, following the European Cybersecurity Act published on 17 April 2019.

Argevide in cooperation with Gdańsk University of Technology has been contributing to this development since 2017.

Artykuł Proposal of a scheme for IACS components cybersecurity certification published by JRC pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.

Monitoring the conformance progress

Michał — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 10:00:00 +0000

NOR-STA version 7.4.1 released on April 24 makes conformance monitoring easier, including progress reviews.

You can view in NOR-STA the history of conformance evaluation changes and the conformance status for any day in the past. In the new version, this has been extended to include conformance history charts.

Another improvement is the conformance chart available for each section of the conformance argument. Such diagrams are also used in conformance reports, which are generated in the new version to docx and pdf files. Formatting conformance reports can be customized by templates. The mechanisms of report templates and conformance argument templates allow for reuse of developed templates.

Starting with version 7.4.1 we introduce a distinction between compliance projects and assurance cases. The new features outlined above are available for compliance projects.

NOR-STA 7.4.1 also brings minor security and functional improvements.

Artykuł Monitoring the conformance progress pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.

Presenting project status on dashboards

Michał — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 10:47:00 +0000

NOR-STA version 7.4 makes project management easier.

The project dashboard shows the main parameters of the project, including its completeness and the results of conformity assessment as well as links to other projects and templates.

Assigning argument elements to users allows you to specify responsibility and also pass fragments of arguments to other persons for further processing.

The extended search function allows you to easily filter items assigned to users, incomplete or not assessed.

The new version allows integration with Sharepoint repositories, browsing repositories and direct references to documents enabling their viewing and editing.

A higher level of security can be provided by using two-factor authentication, where, in addition to entering the password, it is also required to provide the one-time code from the application on the mobile device (e.g. telephone). This solution works with Microsoft Authenticator and Google Authenticator applications. In addition, the password recovery function has been improved.

NOR-STA 7.4 also brings minor security, functionality and performance improvements.

Artykuł Presenting project status on dashboards pochodzi z serwisu Argevide.