On Insider Threats, Deception, and User Modeling

Abstract

There exists a critical gap in current insider threat technology. To date, efforts on insider threat have not seriously taken into account the impact of deception by the insider. Needless to say, without a clear understanding of this impact and mechanisms for deception detection, technology for handling insider threat attacks (beyond simple attacks) can only be reactive in nature that will be often too slow and too late to prevent or even correct the damage done. In this project, we have identified a number of potential technology and research avenues that can provide an essential avenue for developing a dynamic and proactive response to insider threats. The two primary technologies of interest are user modeling and deception detection. First the application of user modeling technology in a novel manner provides unique capabilities in recognizing various classes of insider threats. User modeling in the past has typically been employed to assist the user, to capitalize on knowledge about his/her previous behavior and current roles to infer goals, motives, and intentions in order to anticipate (predict) and facilitate subsequent actions. We observed that such prediction can be used not only to anticipate a future course for the purpose of facilitating pursuit of that course, but also to detect deviations from that course. The second technology is the detection of deception, where different levels and types of deception and their indicators are modeled.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 30, 2011
Accession Number
ADA567009

Entities

People

  • Eugene Santos

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analysts
  • Automated Text Summarization
  • Computer Science
  • Control Systems
  • Cybersecurity
  • Deception
  • Detection
  • Hidden Markov Models
  • Information Operations
  • Insider Threats
  • Intelligence Analysis
  • Intelligent Agents
  • Markov Models
  • Models
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Threats

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Educational Psychology
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy