Volume 12, Issue 3

Volume 12, Issue 3 Editorial

Stylized Image of the Word Editorial

OCTOBER 2013

The staff of the Journal of Information Warfare (JIW) is very excited about this edition. The majority of these papers came from the 12th annual European Conference of Cyber Warfare and Security (ECCWS) held in July 2013 at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. This was an exciting event with a tremendous turnout of IW professionals meeting in a great setting.

The Control of Technology by Nation State: Past, Present, and Future – The Case of Cryptology and Information Security

ABSTRACT

Since the fifties, strong controls have been enforced to prevent the spread of military-grade technology or dual use technologies and, later, especially of Information Security science. These controls originally focus on homeland and international security purposes. But the fall of the Soviet bloc has changed the situation. The enforced controls now aim at organizing an economic dominance of a very few Nation States whose real intent is to organize the strategic dominance over the rest of the world. This paper explains how controls have been organized by the four major actors: Nation State, Industry, Academics, and Hackers.

Establishment of Trust Factors in Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT

While many individuals use social networking sites to connect and maintain contact, attackers may see social networks as a prime target for spreading malware, propaganda, or marketing. However, most users are keen to trust these sites without being aware of the potential dangers. This paper investigates the factors that lead users to trust these sites and specifically focuses on Facebook as an illustrative example. Survey data is presented to indicate some of these trust factors and to explore their impact on user behaviour. Finally, indicators of potentially deceptive agents and profiles are presented to help users decide whether and to what degree they interact with other users.

Antivirus False-Positive Alerts, Evading Malware Detection, and Cybersecurity Issues

ABSTRACT

The continuous development of evolving malware types creates a need to study and understand how antivirus products detect and alert users. This paper investigates today’s antivirus solutions and how their false-positive alerts affect software development and the distribution process. The authors discuss and demonstrate how antivirus detection deals with bespoke applications and how this can be reversed and manipulated to evade detection, allowing the process to be used by malicious software developers. The paper also demonstrates how an undetected malicious piece of software can be developed without using advanced hiding techniques, which will also be capable of overcoming reputation-based detection systems.

Strategic Communication for Cyber-security Leadership

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to form a preliminary hypothesis about how to identify characteristics that a leader needs to focus on when aiming at cyber-security leadership. The paper studies the key concepts and terms of cyber security and presents the physical world and the cyber world framework. The paper refers to a system model of a society and uses that model to analyze the results of two limited media surveys about cyber-related newspaper articles.  The media surveys indicate a strong need to organize the cyber world.

Efficient Remote Authentication

ABSTRACT

In 2003, Kennel and Jamieson described a method of remote machine authentication. By authentication, the authors meant that the remote machine is non-virtual, and the operating system on the remote machine is not malicious. The described method does not consider the variety of versions of each operating system. The description completely ignores the existence of modules that can be plugged into the operating system. The authors of this paper adapt the method described by Kennel and Jamieson to the real world so that it can be applied without prior knowledge of the operating system or the modules on the remote machine.

Retrospective Evaluation of Cyber-security Strategic Reports for the Next Two Decades: From 2000 to 2030

ABSTRACT

Retrospective taxonomical evaluation of the strategic cyber-security reports of the last decade is important to appreciate how the very concept of Cyberspace has evolved along with other important concepts and definitions such as cyber security, cyber terrorism, cyber warfare, and information warfare. For that reason, this paper first evaluates, compares, and contrasts seven cyber-security strategy reports covering the decade from 2002 to 2011. Secondly, armed with the strategic cyber-security reports of the last decade, the paper attempts to ascertain whether the near future cyber-security strategies will continue to be valid.

Cyberspace from the Hybrid Threat Perspective

ABSTRACT

Hybrid threats use conventional and unconventional means to achieve their goals. This paper explores the cyber threats as one possible aspect of hybrid threats. It describes three ways of approaching cyberspace (operations) from the hybrid threats perspective: supporting conventional operations, exploiting non-military systems, and exploring the opportunities provided by this environment. In particular, it highlights the aspects that are or likely will be relevant to the military community.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Policy: The Israeli Experience

ABSTRACT

This article presents the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) policy in Israel and analyses its evolution. Israel established a centralist national critical infrastructure protection system in late 2002, which was implemented rather harmoniously. However, the evolving cyber-environment has led to renewed discussions. After years of discontent, a comprehensive review of national cyber-posture was conducted in 2011. Significant policy changes, fostering coordinated cooperation between public, security, academic, and private sectors, are now in progress. This examination of the Israeli CIP approach may assist policy-making in other countries.

Journal of Information Warfare

The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.

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Keywords

A

AI
APT

C

C2
C2S
CDX
CIA
CIP
CPS

D

DNS
DoD
DoS

I

IA
ICS

M

S

SOA

X

XRY

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The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.

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