Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M6596

DREAD

DREAD
TechnicalHigh supportCybersecurity
Included
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

A threat assessment model developed by Microsoft for quantifying security risks, consisting of five dimensions: - D (Damage): the extent of damage - how much loss is caused if the attack succeeds; - R (Reproducibility): how easily the attack can be repeated; - E (Exploitability): how much skill/resources are needed to launch the attack; - A (Affected users): how many users are affected; - D (Discoverability): how easily the vulnerability can be discovered. Scoring method: each dimension is scored from 1 to 10, and the higher the total score, the greater the risk.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Threat model: developed by Microsoft to quantify security risk across five dimensions. - Dimensions: Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected users and Discoverability, each scoring how severe or how easy the attack is. - Scoring: rate every dimension from 1 to 10, and the higher the total, the greater the risk.

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Anchor fast decisions

A threat assessment model developed by Microsoft that quantifies security risks using five dimensions: Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected users, and Discoverability. Each dimension is scored from 1 to 10, and the higher the total score, the greater the risk. The mechanism is to transform vague 'dangerous or not' into comparable scores.

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Source support: Explicit

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