Mixed-initiative Defensive Information Warfare - A More Pragmatic Paradigm

We propose a new Defensive Information Warfare (DIW) paradigm that will effectively mitigate the risks to our nation's computer networks posed by a critical shortage of security savvy system administrators. We developed this approach in response to ourrecognition that information assurance tools will always remain a number of steps behind the craftiest information warriors, and therefore success in DIW will continue to depend on the human element. The proposed system, Athena, will enable the aggregationof critical DIW expertise and its exploitation by the less security proficient personnel that dominate the military's IT force. To accomplish this goal we draw on the technologies employed in the latest case-based problem resolution software as well as anextension of our own model-based