Knowledge Based Framework for Cyber Weapons and Conflict

In recent years there have been a number of international conflicts that have been mirrored by a parallel campaign of hostile actions in cyberspace. This, in turn, has prompted various attempts to analyze the phenomenon and explain the threat to the wider public. Unfortunately, however, the reports and analysis are often confusing and can include rather arbitrary use of various cyber “buzz words“. It follows that there is a need for a formal rigorous model for describing and analyzing cyber conflicts. Formal methods are also necessary for developing artificial intelligence-enabled offensive and defensive systems for cyber conflicts. In order to provide a remedy for this issue, we propose a formalized framework of key terms in cyber conflict. We begin by revisiting the concepts of knowledge, data and information. Based on that we proceed to define “information system” and “intelligent system”. We provide a formal description for the concept of destroying and falsifying information and explain the concepts of confidentiality, integrity and availability as part of our framework. We then propose definitions for cyber weapons, cyber incidents, cyber attacks, cyber espionage, cyber conflicts and finally, cyberwar. The framework is based on formal logic and allows for theoretical, experimental or empirical research with mathematically provable results. As such, it can provide a solid backbone for cyber conflict research, which is often based on less rigorous methods.