Anti-counterfeiting Effectivity Analysis Using Attack and Defense Tree Scenario Methods

With constantly increasing risks of product piracy the cost-efficiency question of protection mechanisms has to be addressed in order to promote investment into anti-counterfeiting. Current research allows for the determination of a company's specific risk situation. The evaluation of strategic alternatives, however, still needs to be examined further in order to allow well-founded anti-counterfeiting decision making. Exploring one possible approach this paper, therefore, investigates the use of attack and defense tree methods, as known from IT-security research, and shows their applicability within anti-counterfeiting analysis. The method introduced extends existing cost-benefit analyses and focuses on the effectivity evaluation of technical countermeasures exemplarily.