Enhancing Cyber Situational awareness through Active Defence Research Paper

Enhancing Cyber Situational awareness through Active Defence - Research Paper Example They include: i. Visualization of Situation Awareness data/ information ii. Metrics iii. Dynamic Risk Assessment for Mission Assurance However, Cyber Situation Awareness is still considered a new field of research that made its mark with Denning’s (1987, 2002) pioneering work on using expert systems to detect computer attacks in 1987, followed by a plethora of experiments thereafter. The early stage of experiments shaped the concept of tactical fusion, which was proposed by the JDL (Joint Director’s Laboratory) model in 1992. This model contains five functional levels such as 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. It was published by Hall, and Llinas (1997). It focused solely on data management to prevent cyber attacks. In it, most of the tasks are concentrated on level 0, 1, and 4. Tadda finds JDL model as a bottom-up, data driven model (Figure 3). The significance of JDL model lies in the fact that it highlights the significance of algorithmic techniques towards supporting situation awar eness (Salerno, Hinman, & Boulware 2005). Figure 3: Tactical Fusion/JDL Model [Adapted from (Tadd 2008)] Explanation From a simple point of view, SA refers to the knowledge about ongoing events in the cyber environments. According to Ensley (2000: 3), SA defines three essential drivers which include perception, comprehension, and projection. As per Ensley, perceptions of cues (which he refers to as Level 1 SA) are fundamental, since in the absence of basic perception of important information the chance of wrongly visualizing the situation drastically increases. In support of this argument she cites a finding that showed 76% of SA errors of the pilots emanated from lack of perception of the required information (Jones & Ensley 1996). Comprehension on the other hand, refers to an outcome of how people interpret, associate, store, and retain information, and thus makes its place in SA process as Level 2 SA in Ensley’s (1995c). The Level 3 SA, i.e., Projection helps operators to perform at the highest level of SA, since it enables the operators to forecast on situation events and its dynamics, Ensley (2000). Ensley further explains that SA is all about â€Å"knowing what is going on,† while from a formal point of view it is all about â€Å"the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future† (Ensley 1995b: 36). In a nutshell, Ensley consolidated the theoretical perspective of SA by adding human factors in it, thereby opening a new horizon of developments towards achieving quality SA (Wickes 2008: 397). Endorsement of the above view from a host of researchers (Ensley 1993, 1994; Ensley & Rodgers 1994; Ensley & Robertson 1996; and Endsley et al. 1998) highlighted the temporal aspects of time, as the above view showed that both perception of time and temporal dynamics associated with events play crucial roles in the formulatio n of SA, and a critical part of SA involves understanding of the amount of time available in the occurrence of an event or in the course of an action. Such developments helped researchers to underpin time as an integral part of Level 2