evasionability

Evasionability is the degree to which a system, organism, or strategy can avoid detection, monitoring, or countermeasures within a given environment. It is a contextual concept used to describe how easily a target can slip past observers, classifiers, or defenses, rather than an intrinsic property with a universal standard.

In cybersecurity and information security, evasionability refers to how likely an attacker or malware is to bypass security controls such as antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, authentication checks, or network defenses. Factors influencing evasionability include obfuscation techniques, protocol manipulation, timing, and the use of novel or unknown exploit methods. Measurable proxies often include evasion rate, time-to-detection, false-negative rates, and overall success rate under defensive controls.

In biology and ecology, evasionability describes the effectiveness of prey or other organisms in avoiding predators, immune responses, or environmental hazards. Traits such as camouflage, speed, vigilance, and behavioral strategies contribute to higher evasionability in a given habitat.

In systems design and artificial intelligence, evasionability can denote the susceptibility of models or systems to adversarial manipulation or misclassification, as well as the potential to avoid scrutiny or auditing.

Measurement and assessment of evasionability are typically context-specific and rely on controlled testing, simulations, or field trials. The concept is related to, but distinct from, detectability, robustness, and resilience, and it highlights the adversarial dynamics present in many modern systems.