Armed with Science | Tag Archive | Science of Cyberspace

SENDSim: A New Platform for Understanding Behavior in Cyberspace

Filed under Cyber Security, Social Sciences, STEM, Technology, Videos by John Ohab on April 4, 2011 at 9:40 am {no comments}

By Carl Hunt, Greg Amis and Rick Raines

As reported in Armed with Science last October, DoD’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Rapid Reaction Technology Office (RRTO) has been working with the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology’s Center for Cyberspace Research (CCR) on a project called, “Science Enhanced Networked Domains and Secure Social Spaces” (SENDS). The main mission of SENDS is to examine operational and security challenges the United States faces in the use of cyberspace within the global environment. The focus of these examinations is both broad and innovative. RRTO and CCR have supported this project since late 2009.

SENDS partner Icosystem Corporation is delivering a major component of the SENDS Project: a modeling and simulation platform to understand the behaviors of network users and information technologies as they interact within cyberspace. These simulations help visualize the interdependencies that arise with the convergence of these two sources of vulnerability. As the SENDS Project progresses, we’ve been covering developments in the new SENDS website but now that we are within four months of concluding the Pilot, we want to share the status of this task as a preview.

We call the simulation environment for the SENDS Project SENDSim. In brief, SENDSim is an agent-based simulation and experimentation environment designed to help experts better understand cyberspace security challenges by providing a platform for understanding threats, evaluating solutions, and communicating the benefits of a principled security plan to non-technical decision makers. (more…)

Connecting Science, Technology and Academics in Cyberspace

Filed under Education & Culture, Featured, Technology by Armed with Science on December 9, 2010 at 2:18 pm {2 comments}

Students at the Science Center of Pinellas Country, FL, interact with fellow adult learners and practitioner instructors from industry. (Photo: Mr. Joseph Cuenco, Center Director)

by Carl W. Hunt, Ph.D., Directed Technologies, Inc., and Richard Raines, Ph.D., U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, 6 December 2010

Technology has provided humanity more connectivity than most people dreamed possible even 25 years ago. In countries like America, technological progress often outpaces our understanding of what this progress does to us and what it offers to us as the future unfolds. Fortunately, science can often help give us a better context as to how new technology ultimately affects us.

Gaining contextual understanding of people living, learning and working in cyberspace is the core objective of Science Enhanced Network Domains and Secure Social Spaces (SENDS). The SENDS Pilot Project tasks described in last month’s blog give us an enabling framework for that understanding to emerge through the study of what we are calling a Science of Cyberspace. We think of this new science as “open-source science,” loosely derived from a Scientific American article a couple of years ago, by Mitch Waldrop on the topic of what he called “Science 2.0.”

As it is open source science, we are looking for maximum participation in all walks of life, particularly from the people who actually use cyberspace today and in the future. One of the most exciting prospective user groups is today’s students. SENDS has partnered with a variety of organizations in its informal SENDS Consortium, and one of our very innovative educational groups is the Science Center of Pinellas County, FL.

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New DoD Project Developing a “Science of Cyberspace”

Filed under Social Sciences, Technology by Armed with Science on October 28, 2010 at 11:12 am {one comment}

Dr. Carl Hunt is the project manager for a DoD project developing "The Science of Cyberspace". (Courtesy photo)

Dr. Carl Hunt is the Senior Research Director for Information Operations for Arlington, VA-based Directed Technologies, Inc., and is the Project Manager for SENDS. Dr. Hunt is a retired Army officer with extensive experience in network-based operations and defense.

Change happens at the speed of communication and nothing changes human behavior like open communication. The Internet and development of the World Wide Web has changed the way people communicate, it has changed the way they conduct commerce, it has changed the way they live their lives. Cyberspace has not changed any of the physical laws of the universe, but it has brought a new dimension and, as Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn says, for the Dept. of Defense it has brought a new domain. Now, the challenge is learning to maneuver in this new domain.

DoD’s Director of Defense Research and Engineering’s Rapid Reaction Technology Office (RRTO) has been working with the US Air Force Institute of Technology’s Center for Cyberspace Research (CCR) on a project called, “Science Enhanced Networked Domains and Secure Social Spaces” (SENDS). RRTO and CCR have supported this project since late 2009 and SENDS has recently begun posting progress on its work in a new blog called SENDS & The Science of Cyberspace.

A formal SENDS Pilot Project has been underway since June, 2010, and consists of several primary tasks that are highlighted in the blogs. One of the major tasks deals with a sophisticated modeling and simulation effort called SENDSim, which will serve as the primary experimentation environment for the project. Another significant task explores the feasibility of developing a Center for the Science of Cyberspace that will help refine future studies and experiments in cyberspace science and exploration.

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Connecting Science, Technology and Academics in Cyberspace

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