Volume 12, Issue 1

Volume 12, Issue 1 Editorial

APRIL 2013

In this first issue for 2013, there are a variety of papers sourced from the best conference papers of the International Conference of Information Warfare and the European conference of Information Warfare. These papers were selected by the session chairs at each conference and the authors asked to amend them for publication in the JIW. Of course, the traditional source of papers was also used so the mix of papers in this issue provides more material than normal.

From Auftragstaktik to Comprehensive Approach – Key Leader Engagement in Strategic Communication

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the Comprehensive Approach model is discussed as a continuum of the classical Auftragstaktik and the basic ideas of the Comprehensive Approach concept, such as Strategic Communication, Key Leader Engagement, and Combat Camera.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Arto Hirvelä

Aki-Mauri Huhtinen

Tommi Kangasmaa

Keywords

Key Leader Engagement (KLE)

Key Leader Enhancement (KLEN)

Strategic Communication (SC)

Core Narrative

Comprehensive Approach (CA)

Combat Camera (CC)

Read more about From Auftragstaktik to Comprehensive Approach – Key Leader Engagement in Strategic Communication

Strategies for Combating Sophisticated Attacks

ABSTRACT

Industrial control systems (ICS) monitor and control the processes of public utility infrastructures that society depends on—the electric power grid, oil and gas pipelines, transportation and water facilities. Attacks that impact the operations of these critical assets could have devastating consequences. Yet, the complexity and desire to interconnect ICS components have introduced vulnerabilities and attack surfaces that previously did not exist. Cyber attacks are increasing in sophistication and have demonstrated an ability to cross over and create effects in the physical domain. Most notably, ICS associated with the critical infrastructure have proven susceptible to sophisticated, targeted attacks.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Chad Arnold

Jonathan Butts

K. Thirunarayan

Keywords

ICS Security

Defense-in-Depth Limitations

Critical Infrastructure Protection

Read more about Strategies for Combating Sophisticated Attacks

Towards a Theory of Just Cyberwar

ABSTRACT

The text applies just war theory to cyberwar from a philosophical perspective. After defining the concept of cyberwar it discusses the ethical criteria of the traditional jus ad bellum and jus in bello, before emphasizing the need for a Kantian jus post bellum. The aim is to reach several ethical norms which may ultimately lead to new international legal norms (an international treaty inspired by jus post bellum) or allow to assess the adaptation of existing legal norms.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Klaus-Gerd Giesen

Keywords

Read more about Towards a Theory of Just Cyberwar

Top-Level Goals in Reverse Engineering Executable Software

ABSTRACT

People perform reverse engineering to discover vulnerabilities, to understand how attackers could exploit vulnerabilities, and to determine ways in which vulnerabilities might be mitigated. People reverse engineer executable programs to determine the structure, function, and behavior of software from unknown provenance that may not be trustworthy or safe to use.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Keywords

Reverse Engineering

Binary Analysis

Cognitive Task Analysis

Knowledge Engineering

Read more about Top-Level Goals in Reverse Engineering Executable Software

Modeling System Activity Logging for Evidence Collection

ABSTRACT

System activity logs create an ongoing history of chronologically ordered records that describe events taking place in a computing system. Although system activity logs were originally designed for performance monitoring and troubleshooting, they can be used to collect forensic evidence. This paper develops a generic ‘technology-independent’ model of an event reporting service. The paper finds three key features that determine data collection capability – ‘event detection’, ‘event selection’ and ‘event description’. Design constraints in each of these features typically found in mainstream operating systems are identified and the limitations imposed on the forensic evidence collection capability of modern operating systems are discussed.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Atif Ahmad

Anthonie (Tobias) Ruighaver

Keywords

Read more about Modeling System Activity Logging for Evidence Collection

Virtual Non-State Actors as Clausewitzian Centers of Gravity: An Examination for Sensemaking, Elaboration and Discussion

ABSTRACT

Against traditional interpretations of Clausewitzian centers of gravity, we examine the characteristics and behaviors of Non-State Actors (NSAs) operating in virtual space. Possessing disparate aims; ‘virtual NSAs’ (VNSAs) increasingly affect the geopolitical battle-space from diplomacy to kinetic warfare. This paper examines the ways in which VNSAs create spheres of influence, manipulate publics, and form a hardened constraints-set for strategic and operational planning. What are some functional categories that may be applied to the creation of taxonomy when examining VNSAs? This paper examines the qualities of VNSAs themselves so that Center of Gravity (COG) analysis, when relevant, is accurately applied.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Larisa Breton

Keywords

Clausewitz

Virtual Non-State Actors

Read more about Virtual Non-State Actors as Clausewitzian Centers of Gravity: An Examination for Sensemaking, Elaboration and Discussion

Design of a Hybrid Command and Control Mobile Botnet

ABSTRACT

The increasing popularity and improvement in capabilities offered by smartphones caught the attention of botnet developers. Now the threat of botnets is moving towards the mobile environment. This study presents the design of a hybrid command and control mobile botnet. The hybrid design explores the efficiency of multiple command and control channels against the following objectives: no single point of failure within the topology, low cost for command dissemination, limited network activities, and low battery consumption. The objectives are measured with a prototype that is deployed on a small collection of Android-based smartphones. The results indicate that current mobile technology exhibits all the capabilities needed to create a mobile botnet.

Published In

Volume 12, Issue 1

Written By

Heloise Pieterse

M. Olivier

Keywords

Read more about Design of a Hybrid Command and Control Mobile Botnet

Factors that Influence Young Adults’ Online Security Awareness in Durban in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Online fraud is aggressively threatening individuals and some believe that it can turn into a weapon of electronic warfare in the near future. There is strong agreement that society is required to develop its own resilience against this risk (Jakobsson & Srikwan, 2008). Vast sums are spent by both the government and business sectors on deflecting mechanisms and on cleaning up after online attacks which are becoming increasingly sophisticated and diverse (Gartner, 2009). The goal of this exploratory study was to establish what the factors that influenced online security were amongst young South African, Durban based adults. The conceptual framework used to guide this approach was Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers, 1983). Data for this study was collected via an online survey. The questionnaire was e-mailed to prospective participants at the University of KwaZulu Natal, where they could submit it electronically. The survey was also sent to the researchers Facebook friends and Twitter followers who fitted the criteria. Significant findings were that gender, race and employment status affected user awareness of online security.