Integrated Network Attack Fusion System (INAFS)

In today's information age, the shift is being made from the traditional platform-centric warfare to network centric warfare (NCW). While this shift provides increased capability, it relies on an extensive network of systems that form the Global Information Grid (GIG). The GIG is threatened by numerous entities including terrorist organizations, hackers sympathetic to America's enemies, criminal organizations, and also numerous nation states who have declared their intent to develop cyber warfare capabilities (Bryan, 2003). The ability to prevent, detect, and respond to these cyber attacks is a crucial component for the protection of our computer networks and the mission critical software that relies on them. Here we propose an Integrated Network Attack Fusion System (INAFS) to support cyber attack assessment and defense. Our approach leverages three synergistic technologies: intelligent agent-based information retrieval of network data; a rule-based mechanism for event and alert generation based on retrieved information; and a Bayesian belief network approach to cyber attack detection and assessment. We see considerable potential for this approach in ensuring network survivability from cyber attack and maintaining continuity of operations.