A Framework of Coordinated Defense

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computational Cultural Dynamics (ICCCD-08)

Volume

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computational Cultural Dynamics (ICCCD-08)

Contents

Coordinated defense in cyber warfare has emerged to protect information as assets through the use of technologies, policy, and best management practices for defending against coordinated attacks. However, combining massive security technologies, policies, procedures and security staff does not guarantee the effectiveness of defense. Without a well-defined and structured element of coordination, an organization can not stand firm during coordinated attacks. The “culture” of coordinated defense must evolve within an organization over time. Organizations that adopt the framework of coordinated defense can develop a set of common assumptions regarding the organizational operations, and build a social firewall through well-structured coordination. The framework forms unique characteristics of an information security culture for that organization. This paper adopts Coordination Theory, and conceptualizes implicit coordination elements in the realm of monitoring-based coordinated defense in a dynamic online environment. While there is little research done in coordinated defense, this paper contributes to the information systems security by providing a framework for approaching coordinated defense. Through analyzing coordination dependencies, a culture of collaboration in a virtual world could be enhanced. Future studies in this area may include empirical analysis of an existing coordinated defense, such as incident response reporting systems against attacks, from the coordination theory perspective.