Paper detail

Kinetic and Cyber

We compare and contrast situation awareness in cyber warfare and in conventional, kinetic warfare. Situation awareness (SA) has a far longer history of study and applications in such areas as control of complex enterprises and in conventional warfare, than in cyber warfare. Far more is known about the SA in conventional military conflicts, or adversarial engagements, than in cyber ones. By exploring what is known about SA in conventional, also commonly referred to as kinetic, battles, we may gain insights and research directions relevant to cyber conflicts. We discuss the nature of SA in conventional (often called kinetic) conflict, review what is known about this kinetic SA (KSA), and then offer a comparison with what is currently understood regarding the cyber SA (CSA). We find that challenges and opportunities of KSA and CSA are similar or at least parallel in several important ways. With respect to similarities, in both kinetic and cyber worlds, SA strongly impacts the outcome of the mission. Also similarly, cognitive biases are found in both KSA and CSA. As an example of differences, KSA often relies on commonly accepted, widely used organizing representation - map of the physical terrain of the battlefield. No such common representation has emerged in CSA, yet.