Book excerpt: Cyber-professionals recognize that some defensive measures could exacerbate cyber-defense challenges by motivating attackers to adapt—unintentionally inspiring attackers to develop more potent and resilient capabilities. Further study in this area is required to ensure defense and security practices are up to date. Adaptive Security and Cyber Assurance for Risk-Based Decision Making explores decision making in the context of software-based systems and discusses why it is difficult to achieve. It also identifies a discipline termed cyber-assurance, which considers the interactions of assurance-enhancing technology, system architecture, and the development life cycle. Covering key topics such as cyber assurance, security, and defensive operations, this premier reference source is ideal for industry professionals, computer scientists, academicians, engineers, researchers, scholars, practitioners, librarians, instructors, and students.