Ten Dimensions of Cyber Threat

Dr. Kamal Jabbour and Dr. Erich Devendorf have characterized the cyber threat the DoD faces. They describe threats as having these ten characteristics:

• Highly educated on the science of information assurance
• Doctrinally trained on the art of cyber warfare
• Adequately resourced in talent, time, and treasure
• Thoroughly briefed on target missions and systems
• Mathematically specialized in architectural properties
• Superiorly skilled in byzantine failure analysis
• Intricately involved in protocol specification and analysis
• Critically embedded in the supply chain
• Strategically postured in command and control
• Conveniently situated for access and persistence

The paper uses these points to demonstrate how an adversary thinks about attacking our systems. However, I see a lot of ways in which these should coerce the DoD to make serious changes in how we build and maintain our cyber professional workforce.