Specifying Functional Requirements for Simulating Professional Offensive Cyber Operations
ABSTRACT
Several nations are acquiring the capability for conducting professional offensive cyber operations to fight wars and combat crime and terrorism. They need to know how the attack process works, what resources are required, and how to command and control operations. Simulation is a powerful technology for gaining understanding about such issues. This article presents the functional requirements specification for an agent-based simulator of professional offensive cyber operations in a networked environment. Requirements cover the simulation infrastructure, including time handling, stochastic behaviour, modelling representation, interfacing, and simulation control. Cyber-specific use cases are grouped by stakeholder and phase of operation.
AUTHORS
Retired But Active Researchers
Netherlands
Tim Grant is retired but an active scientific researcher in the fields of network-enabled command & control systems, offensive cyber operations, sense-making in novel and unexpected situations, and agent-based simulation. He has a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering (Bristol University, UK), a Master’s-level Defence Fellowship (Brunel University, UK), and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence (Maastricht University, NL). Tim’s working career covered 20 years as a military officer in the (British) Royal Air Force, 17 years consultancy experience in Atos (a global IT services supplier), and 10 years’ experience in academia (including a visiting professorship at the University of Pretoria, South Africa). His last appointment was as the Professor of Operational ICT & Communications within the Faculty of Military Sciences at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA), where he led a team of five lecturers. He became a Professor Emeritus on 1 July 2012, when he founded Retired But Active Researchers (R-BAR). In 2014, together with two NLDA colleagues, Tim edited a scientific book entitled Network topology in command and control: organization, operation, and evolution.
Published In
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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