Mission Function Task Analysis for Cyber Defence

Abstract

The decisions that must be made for cyber defense are often based on information that is both subjective and qualitative in nature. Objective, quantitative information can exist in the form of various measurements and metrics; however, it is not yet clear what information is needed to support the cyber defense decision-maker as the decision space for cyber defense has not been formalized. The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) Communications and Information System (CIS) Security Capability Breakdown presents a list of cyber defense capabilities and provides a useful starting point for such an analysis. As part of CIS security, cyber defense addresses the ability to safeguard the delivery and management of services in response to potential and actual malicious actions in cyberspace. In the present work, the breakdown of cyber defense capabilities is used to carry out a mission-function-task (MFT) analysis. This is accomplished by translating cyber defense capabilities into cyber defense missions and their functions, and then enumerating the tasks that would be needed to perform each function. The resulting tasks are then analyzed for their information requirements in order to identify where measurements and metrics could support the decision-making needs. These results will contribute to unbiased decision-making by improving cyber defense situational awareness.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 11, 2014
Accession Number
AD1017005

Entities

People

  • Kathryn Perrett
  • Melanie Bernier

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Security Techniques
  • Cyber Defense Techniques
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cyberspace
  • Information Systems
  • Measurement
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Situational Awareness
  • Task Performance And Analysis

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Space