Misbruikscenarios

Misbruikscenarios, or misuse scenarios, are hypothetical descriptions of how a system, service, or process could be exploited or used improperly. They are used to identify risks, inform defensive design, and support threat modeling and risk assessment.

Scope and actors: They cover cyber, physical, and organizational abuse and can involve external attackers, insiders, automated agents, or even accidental misuses by legitimate users. Examples include phishing to obtain credentials, data exfiltration, fraud, account takeover, service abuse, or manipulation of automated workflows.

Development: A typical process starts with identifying critical assets and threat actors, mapping attack surfaces, and crafting plausible scenarios that describe goals, methods, and potential impacts at a high level. Scenarios are then evaluated for likelihood and severity and used to prioritize mitigations and controls.

Applications: Misbruikscenarios inform security design, policy development, incident response planning, and user experience reviews. They help test defenses, validate controls, and ensure privacy and compliance, without disclosing sensitive exploit details.

Limitations and ethics: Scenarios should be kept high-level and anonymized; they must avoid enabling wrongdoing and respect legal and ethical standards. They should be updated as technology, threats, and regulations evolve.