sesa 13(2): e6

Research Article

A human-in-the-loop approach to understanding situation awareness in cyber defence analysis

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  • @ARTICLE{10.4108/trans.sesa.01-06.2013.e6,
    author={Michael Tyworth and  Nicklaus A. Giacobe and Vincent F. Mancuso and Michael D. McNeese and David L. Hall},
    title={A human-in-the-loop approach to understanding situation awareness in cyber defence analysis},
    journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Security and Safety},
    volume={1},
    number={2},
    publisher={ICST},
    journal_a={SESA},
    year={2013},
    month={5},
    keywords={computer defence analysis, cybersecurity, human-in-the-loop, living lab framework, situation awareness},
    doi={10.4108/trans.sesa.01-06.2013.e6}
}
  • Michael Tyworth
    Nicklaus A. Giacobe
    Vincent F. Mancuso
    Michael D. McNeese
    David L. Hall
    Year: 2013
    A human-in-the-loop approach to understanding situation awareness in cyber defence analysis
    SESA
    ICST
    DOI: 10.4108/trans.sesa.01-06.2013.e6
Michael Tyworth1,*, Nicklaus A. Giacobe1, Vincent F. Mancuso1, Michael D. McNeese1, David L. Hall1
  • 1: College of Information Sciences & Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
*Contact email: mjt241@smeal.psu.edu

Abstract

In this paper we argue for a human-in-the-loop approach to the study of situation awareness in computer defence analysis (CDA). The cognitive phenomenon of situation awareness (SA) has received significant attention in cybersecurity/CDA research. Yet little of this work has attended to the cognitive aspects of situation awareness in the CDA context; instead, the human operator has been treated as an abstraction within the larger human-technology system. A more human-centric approach that seeks to understand the socio-cognitive work of human operators as they perform CDA will yield greater insights into the design of tools and interfaces for CDA. As support for this argument, we present our own work employing the Living Lab Framework through which we ground our experimental findings in contextual knowledge of real-world practice.

Keywords
computer defence analysis, cybersecurity, human-in-the-loop, living lab framework, situation awareness
Received
2012-03-27
Accepted
2013-03-27
Published
2013-05-03
Publisher
ICST
http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/trans.sesa.01-06.2013.e6

Copyright © 2013 Nixon and McGuinness, licensed to ICST. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.