Dec. 18, 2018

AI in Cyberspace: Beyond the Hype

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming ubiquitous, particularly as part of solutions to defense problems in cyberspace. It seems like few companies want to risk marketing products that cannot be described using this term,perhaps for fear of losing ground to competitors who can. But what exactly is meant by AI? Is it all just marketing hype? The answer, of course, is far from simple. To move beyond the hype, we need to look at what AI is, what it is not and how the technology needs to mature to live up to its promise.

Dec. 18, 2018

Intelligent Autonomous Agents are Key to Cyber Defense of the Future Army Networks

Intelligent autonomous agents will be widely present on the battlefield of the future.The proliferation of intelligent agents is the emerging reality of warfare, and they will form an ever-growing fraction of total military assets. By necessity, intelligent autonomous cyber defense agents are likely to become primary cyber fighters on the future battlefield. Initial explorations have identified the key functions, components and their interactions for a potential reference architecture of such an agent. However, it is beyond the current state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support an agent that could operate intelligently in an environment as complex as the real battlefield. A number of difficult challenges are yet to be resolved. At the same time, a growing body of research in Government and academia demonstrates promising steps towards overcoming some of the challenges.The industry is beginning to embrace approaches that may contribute to technologies of autonomous intelligent agents for the cyber defense of the Army networks.

Dec. 18, 2018

A Conceptual Review of Cyber-Operations for the Royal Navy

Cyberspace is a malleable and seemingly ubiquitous environment through which information flows. Armed forces use this information to make decisions and take action. The fundamental importance of cyberspace to modern military operations leads threat actors to desire access to and control over its components.In response, organizations like the Royal Navy conduct defensive Cyber-Operations(CO) to protect their information networks and platforms. At the same time,offensive CO allow armed forces to take advantage of the reach of cyberspace to weaken the position of their adversaries. This paper discusses the nature of the threats faced by national-security institutions, and the doctrinal factors that policy-makers must consider.The paper reviews the approach to CO of several countries and evaluates the work done by the Royal Navy in developing cyber capabilities.

Dec. 18, 2018

The Future of Cyber Defense… Going on the Offensive

Today, organizations are faced with the overwhelming challenge of protecting their enterprise against threat actors that are well resourced and constantly evolving. While most clients have a traditional Security Operations Center(SOC) to identify vulnerabilities and catch harmful activity on their networks, historical evidence proves that perimeter defense alone is not enough. To combat these evolving threats, traditional approaches to Cyber defense must evolve, and enterprises must go on the offensive. One emerging approach is Advanced Threat Hunting. An approach that pairs best-in-class Cyber Defense tools with trained threat analysts who have a deep understanding of their operating environment and an ability to ask the right questions. Advanced Threat Hunting, in conjunction with the client’s current security posture, offers a proactive, defense in-depth solution focused on finding malicious actors.

Dec. 18, 2018

Great Powers in Cyberspace: The Strategic Drivers Behind US, Chinese and Russian Competition

Earlier this year the Pentagon released its first National Defense Strategy in a decade. The document put the long-term great power competition between the United States and what it calls two revisionist powers, China and Russia, at the forefront. Russia’s global influence on the global stage has been steadily resurging over the past ten years, culminating with its intervention in Ukraine in 2014,and China, likewise, has regained its historical status as a global power after its so-called century of humiliation. Though the United States’ attention has been elsewhere– namely on the Middle East and the Global War on Terrorism – for much of this time,it is now renewing its focus on its near peers in a return to the status quo.

Dec. 18, 2018

The Cyber Defense Review: Cyber Conflict in a Competitive World

Welcome to, what we believe, is our most thought-provoking edition of The Cyber Defense Review (CDR). Before we begin this edition of the CDR, I would like to start off by extending my sincere thanks to those who put together the CyCon U.S. conference. This year’s event at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC provided a dynamic environment to address relevant cyber issues confronting the global cyber community. Dr. Ed Sobiesk and the CyCon U.S. conference committee continue to build a monumental event for cyber practitioners.

Dec. 4, 2018

Book Review: Pushing Limits: From West Point to Berkeley & Beyond

Ted Hill was a different type of leader for the U.S. Army than West Point intended to produce when he graduated in 1966. He was adventurous, entrepreneurial, highly talented, quantitative yet out-of-the-box, irreverent to senseless authority, impatient, and very lucky to survive his 4-year required service to the Army after his United States Military Academy (USMA) schooling and commissioning. This autobiography of a West Point graduate, Army officer, and a highly successful academic professor is a fun, action-packed look at the anachronism of a modern 21st-century deep thinker serving in the highly structured Army during the Vietnam era.

Sept. 17, 2018

Book Review: Cyber War

This book takes a holistic view of the cyber world and how it pertains to the United States regarding capabilities, vulnerabilities, policy, and potential strategies. We, as student and instructor in a course entitled Networks for Cyber Operations used this book as one of our texts in the Spring semester of 2016. Author Richard Clarke uses his experience in dealing with nuclear weapons, and his role as a Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Security to explain how the world situation has changed to make cyberattacks a significant threat to the United States.Clarke and Knake do an excellent job of speaking to a general audience (from cyber novices to experienced cyber warriors and hackers). The authors introduce the subject by describing the Israeli cyberattack on Syria before the bombing of a nuclear facility in 2007. This book stays away from the technical aspects of cyberattacks, but provides detailed background information about the Internet and how digitization has created a new battlefield.

Sept. 5, 2018

The Cyber Defense Review: Cyber Leadership During Uncertain Times

During these uncertain times of relentless cyber onslaughts against critical US infrastructure and DoD networks and systems, cyber leadership has never been so important to effectively defend and manage the national cybersecurity ecosystem. The intensive and crippling nature of cyber conflict requires cyber leadership not only to defend against cyberattacks of significant consequence but to also generate integrated cyberspace effects in support of operational plans and contingency operations.

Sept. 5, 2018

Financial Stewardship in the Land of “1’s and 0’s”

Budget processes supporting cyberspace operations are uniquely challenged due to their dispersal within Department of Defense (DoD) Services and agencies. This budgetary structure fails to provide the visibility needed to analyze and report on cyberspace investments. Furthermore, this structure fails to provide the resolution, with a high level of confidence, on how the DoD executes money in support of cyberspace operations. Establishing a budgetary process similar to that employed by special operations would synchronize and integrate funding activities to operational functions and tasks. This includes the creation of a cyberspace Major Force Program (MFP) that would provide cyberspace budget lines throughout the department. These proposals would create a budgetary structure that could best serve the unique requirements demanded in cyberspace. Doing so would act to acknowledge the cyberspace domain as a separate environment integrated across all Services.