Visualization for Command and Control of Cyberspace Operations

The ultimate goal for this project is to design and implement an integrated suite of visualization tools to assist commanders, analysts, and operators in planning, executing, and assessing the effects of offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace.  To achieve this goal, we must first identify cyberspace characteristics and processes and we must better understand how operators interact with cyberspace systems to effectively carry out command and control.  We organize cyberspace characteristics into a model with four interacting layers that comprise a cyber operations stack Mission Capability, Applications and Processes, Network Domain, and Logical Network.  Interwoven with these operations layers are four cross-domain attribute layers Time, Geospatial, Organizational, and Course of Action Effects.  Based on this model, we design correlation and visualization techniques to assist cyber operators in perceiving elements that influence cyberspace operations, comprehending the impact of these elements on network operations, and projecting the effect of these elements on future mission capability.  These visualizations distinguish between known vulnerabilities and strengths of friendly, enemy, neutral, and non-combatant cyber systems and networks.   BENEFIT: To effectively defend and protect friendly cyber systems, and to effectively exploit enemy systems, commanders must understand the impact of cyber operations on mission capabilities.  This task is complicated by the very characteristics that make cyber systems valuable rapid processing of large quantities of information, highly-interconnected information flow between systems, adaptability to a changing environment, and redundant distributed processing.  These characteristics lead to highly complex systems that can be very difficult to understand.  Relating the status of such cyber systems to specific mission capabilities is not easily achieved. Although the challenges of achieving situational awareness for cyberspace command and control are great, the opportunities for achieving meaningful solutions are within reach.  We consider two elements of cyberspace which contribute to the challenge complexity which is created through the interaction of relationships, patterns, and anomalies found in large quantities of heterogeneous information and abstractness which results from the lack of a well understood physical model to which the information conforms.  By using automated correlation algorithms and interactive computer visualization tools we can abstract away unnecessary complexity and organize relationships and aggregates to assist human perception and cognition. While no single tool is likely to solve these challenges, an effective set of visualization tools, coupled with automated techniques for correlating and organizing cyberspace information, can significantly improve the state-of-the-art for achieving cyberspace situational awareness.