Securing the U.S. Defense Information Infrastructure
A Proposed Approach
It is widely believed, and increasingly documented, that the United States is vulnerable to various types of information warfare attacks. Threats range from nuisance attacks by hackers to those potentially putting national security at risk. The latter might include attacks on essential U.S. information systems in a major regional crisis or theater war. The purpose might be to deter (or coerce) a U.S. intervention, to degrade U.S. power projection capabilities, to punish the United States or its allies, or to undermine the support of the American public for the conflict. Critical command-and-control and intelligence systems are designed to be robust and secure under attack. However, their survivability cannot be taken for granted, and they depend on a diverse, primarily civilian and commercial, information infrastructure (consisting of the Internet and the public telephone network, among other elements). As the diversity and potential seriousness of threats to the U.S. information infrastructure have become apparent, national-security planners and analysts have begun to think of ways to counter such threats--to increase the infrastructure's availability for essential functions. The authors analyze the concept of a minimum essential information infrastructure (MEII) in light of the characteristics of the national information infrastructure and the nature of the threat. They suggest that it is useful to think of the MEII as a process rather than a hardened stand-alone structure, and they provide a methodology and a tool to support the implementation of that process by military units and other organizations.
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Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 188
- List Price: $35.00
- Price: $28.00
- ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-2713-1
- Document Number: MR-993-OSD/NSA/DARPA
- Year: 1999
- Series: Monograph Reports
Contents
Preface PDF
Figures PDF
Tables PDF
Summary PDF
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments PDF
Acronyms
Acronyms and Abbreviations PDF
Glossary PDF
Chapter One
Introduction PDF
Chapter Two
The Information Warfare Threat and the Meii Response PDF
Chapter Three
Vulnerabilities PDF
Chapter Four
Responsive Security Techniques PDF
Chapter Five
Identifying Security Techniques PDF
Chapter Six
Distribution of Research Effort PDF
Chapter Seven
Recommendations PDF
Appendix A
Historical Note on the U.S. Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network (Meecn) PDF
Appendix B
How Threats Relevant to an Meii Differ from Hacker Nuisance Attacks PDF
Appendix C
Biological Analogies for Information System Survivability PDF
Appendix D
Prioritization in Information Systems PDF
Appendix E
On Deception PDF
Appendix F
Mapping Security Solution Techniques to Vulnerabilities PDF
Appendix G
Information Assurance Research Projects Examined PDF
References PDF
This report is part of the RAND Corporation monograph report series. The monograph/report was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2003. RAND monograph/reports presented major research findings that addressed the challenges facing the public and private sectors. They included executive summaries, technical documentation, and synthesis pieces.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.


