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  • Book
  • Open Access
  • © 2016

Anti-fragile ICT Systems

  • First book to introduce and analyze anti-fragile ICT systems
  • Contains a chapter on Netflix’s pioneering work to create a system with anti-fragility to downtime
  • Two chapters on a new online learning algorithm to quickly detect system anomalies
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Simula SpringerBriefs on Computing (SBRIEFSC, volume 1)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
  2. The Concept of Anti-fragility

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Introduction

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 3-12Open Access
    3. Achieving Anti-fragility

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 13-23Open Access
    4. The Need to Build Trust

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 25-34Open Access
    5. Principles Ensuring Anti-fragility

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 35-43Open Access
  3. Anti-fragility to Downtime

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 45-45
    2. Anti-fragile Cloud Solutions

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 47-56Open Access
    3. Toward an Anti-fragile e-Government System

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 57-65Open Access
    4. Anti-fragile Cloud-Based Telecom Systems

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 67-78Open Access
  4. Anti-fragility to Malware

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79
    2. Robustness to Malware Spreading

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 81-92Open Access
    3. Robustness to Malware Reinfections

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 93-98Open Access
    4. Anti-fragility to Malware Spreading

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 99-110Open Access
  5. Anomaly Detection

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111
    2. The HTM Learning Algorithm

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 113-124Open Access
    3. Anomaly Detection with HTM

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 125-132Open Access
  6. Future Anti-fragile Systems

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133
    2. Summary and Future Work

      • Kjell Jørgen Hole
      Pages 135-140Open Access
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 141-151

About this book

This book introduces a novel approach to the design and operation of large ICT systems. It views the technical solutions and their stakeholders as complex adaptive systems and argues that traditional risk analyses cannot predict all future incidents with major impacts. To avoid unacceptable events, it is necessary to establish and operate anti-fragile ICT systems that limit the impact of all incidents, and which learn from small-impact incidents how to function increasingly well in changing environments.

The book applies four design principles and one operational principle to achieve anti-fragility for different classes of incidents. It discusses how systems can achieve high availability, prevent malware epidemics, and detect anomalies. Analyses of Netflix’s media streaming solution, Norwegian telecom infrastructures, e-government platforms, and Numenta’s anomaly detection software show that cloud computing is essential to achieving anti-fragility forclasses of events with negative impacts.

Reviews

“This small book is packed with technical detail and well supported with figures and examples. There is a thorough table of contents, a good index, and a list of references. Hole describes techniques that will likely be useful for successfully constructing complex, adaptive ICT systems and illustrates these with several detailed case studies. All in all, this is a good, detailed introduction to this relatively new area of anti-fragile ICT systems.” (David B. Henderson, Computing Reviews, March, 2017)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Informatics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Kjell Jørgen Hole

About the author

Kjell Jørgen Hole holds a full-time position as a professor at the Department of Informatics, University of Bergen (UiB) and a part-time position as the head of the security department at the Simula Research Laboratory in Oslo. At the time of this writing, he is part of a joint effort between UiB and Simula to form a new cyber security research group. 

While Kjell completed his PhD in coding theory at UiB, he did most of his thesis work at the University of California, San Diego, where he worked at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR). 

Kjell was also a postdoctoral researcher at IBM Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, where he conducted research on convolutional codes and artificial neural networks. Later, he worked on trellis coded modulation at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. During this period, Kjell mainly published his research in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and IEEE Transactions on Communications. 

Kjell eventually switched fields from coding theory to cyber security because he wanted to pursue more applied research. His first research group in the field of security became “infamous” in Norway for a few years because it shattered local myths about information technology systems’ high degree of security and privacy. The group published articles in the IEEE magazines Security & Privacy and Computer. 

Kjell enjoys teaching and working with students. Through the years he has supervised many master’s and PhD students. At UiB, he developed and taught courses and seminars in introductory programming, coding theory, information security, anti-fragile systems, and communication standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. He has also given many talks to Norwegian industry and written feature articles about security in Norwegian newspapers. 

Together with two of his PhD students, Kjell founded a security consultancy. Today, he is a board member of mCASH, a company operating a mobile payment solution in Norway.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 24.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access