Information Data Fusion and Computer Network Defense

Abstract

Computer networks no longer simply enable military and civilian operations, but have become vital infrastructures for all types of operations ranging from sensing and command/control to logistics, power distribution, and many other functions. Consequently, network attacks have become weapons of choice for adversaries engaged in asymmetric warfare. Traditionally, data and information fusion techniques were developed to improve situational awareness and threat assessment by combining data from diverse sources, and have recently been extended to include both physical (“hard”) sensors and human observers (acting as “soft” sensors). This chapter provides an introduction to traditional data fusion models and adapts them to the domain of cyber security. Recent advances in hard and soft information fusion are summarized and applied to the cyber security domain. Research on the use of sound for human-in-the-loop pattern recognition (sonification) is also introduced. Finally, perspectives are provided on the future for data fusion in cyber security research.