Visualization for Command and Control of Cyberspace Operations

Cyberspace superiority is a prerequisite for effective operations in all other warfighting domains. To maintain cyberspace superiority, there is a need for effective Command and Control (C2) tools to observe, plan, and execute cyber operations. Visualization is a key enabler of C2 but new approaches are required to address cyber security data sets. A principal challenge is the complexity of this data: it is immense and multidimensional, includes streaming and log data, and comes from a diverse set of applications with different protocols and formats. The Visualization tool for Integrated Command and Control (VIC3) fuses these disparate data sets to provide cyber situation awareness and decision support for cyber planning and operations. It allows users to identify information dependencies and critical data flows, correlate cyber events, project potential effects, evaluate alternative cyber COAs, and view the relationships between cyber and kinetic operations. VIC3 uses A) Coordinated Views to fuse different data sets and provide multiple perspectives, B) Abstract Information Layers (AIL) to provide querying and visual layering of cyber security data sets analogous to geographical information systems (GIS), C) Dynamic Queries to select items that match user specified criteria, and D) a Plug-in Architecture to integrate with external tools. BENEFIT: The Visualization tool for Integrated Cyber Command and Control (VIC3) will facilitate cyber planning and operations with features that are unavailable in current tools and is therefore ideal for transitioning to support I-NOSC, AFNOC, and related personnel. The proposed effort will also advance VisiTrend’s commercial offerings for visualization and cyber security including interfaces and APIs to be licensed to commercial partners.