Data Dominance – the New Frontier for Defense

This content is provided by Teradata

By Patience Wait

Analytics, AI, machine learning are the new weapons

In the Digital Age, the nature of warfare has dramatically changed. Our traditional military assets are not effective against digital weaponry.

The potential challengers have multiplied, and become much more varied, in size, in method, and in objectives. It is no longer a battle of arms to gain land and treasure. Even those with little economic power and no military might can initiate global conflict.

Compounding this dilemma, countries have spent centuries defining the rules of engagement to reflect the changing nature of warfare. But those rules don’t apply in cyberspace, where every attack can be cloaked in anonymity.

One aspect of conflict that hasn’t changed: The primary objective is not to take lives unnecessarily or destroy property wantonly, but to eliminate as expeditiously as possible our adversaries’ ability to wage war. On the digital battlefield, having a 360-degree view of those adversaries and their activities is essential.

Adapting commercial tools for the digital battlespace

In the commercial sector, companies can now maintain a 360-degree view of customers and competitors. They use analytics to predict buying patterns, gauge customer loyalty, monitor competitors’ actions, and other business activities.

Many of the analytics Teradata provides in the private sector can be adapted to help mission commanders maintain the same level of awareness for cyber criminals – their activities, their interests and insights into their motives and objectives. Providing this level of awareness allows our defense leadership the ability to deflect damaging cyberattacks and preempt the use of force on either side.

“For instance, understanding ‘human geography’ – why people do what they do where they do it – can be used to determine changing attitudes,” says Mark Powers, Solution Architect Manager, National Security (Americas), Teradata Government Systems LLC. “By analyzing the human geography of virtually any place on earth, we can begin to detect conflict, whether it arises from environmental issues, land ownership, ethnicity, or any of a host of factors. In much the same way that analytics can detect the sentiment of a buyer in a particular store, the same tools can identify patterns of behavior, of beliefs, whether those behaviors and beliefs are regionally focused or discouraged, whether they align within any particular geographical domain or are more widely spread.”

By watching for these kinds of markers, analytics can provide an “early warning system” for the emergence of particular sentiments and actions. This, in turn, allows for actions in cyberspace to be targeted very specifically to deter or deflect hostilities.

Addressing a boundary-less battlefield

In defense planning, the concept of “attack surface” is key.  For instance, when the Navy deploys an attack cruiser in overseas waters, the cruiser itself is the attack surface. A three-dimensional defense perimeter is established and any threat that enters is managed from detection through disposition.

In the digital space, the attack surface is almost infinite. Every laptop, every computer, mobile device, IoT-enabled device, all the networks – each is a potential entry point. And the landscape is constantly changing, as new assets and new networks come on board.

“This makes it essential to use machine learning and artificial intelligence on the Big Data generated by the landscape; analytics can inventory and analyze our defense networks and assets, identifying potential weaknesses and applying resources to protect them,” Powers says. Similarly, “these analytic tools can be used to monitor a consistently changing attack surface to effectively manage threats.”

Already, defense concepts such as “air superiority” and “air supremacy” are being adapted into “data superiority” and “data supremacy.” These concepts form the strategic basis for day-to-day tactics in cyberspace skirmishes. It’s like the most sophisticated, multilevel game of chess ever imagined – our cyber warriors may detect someone attempting to take advantage of an open port on a networked computer; they have to decide whether to close the port and thwart the attack, or to leave it vulnerable at least for a little while, to see what they can learn of the intruder’s skills, tools, and intent.

In the 21^st century, it is important to recognize that cyber conflict is likely to involve parties outside the military sphere – from utilities to financial networks to ordinary people in their day-to-day lives.

“That makes it more important than ever that we prioritize knowing our adversaries, and use that knowledge to forestall their actions,” Powers says. “For if it is true that the conduct of war is a reflection of the character of those engaged, our national interests (and image) will be much better served through the application of influence through means that protect, rather than threaten, human life regardless of its location or national affiliation. That’s where Teradata comes in.”

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