Volume 7, Issue 1 (2024) HammerCon 2024 Issue
Foreword
Why is Cyber hard?
Every article in this issue is written by Virtual Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ (VICEROY) Scholars who offer answers.
Founded within the rich scholarly environment of the Naval Postgraduate School, the Military Cyber Professionals Association (MCPA) and this peer-reviewed journal continue to enjoy deep relationships with the leading minds of our broader military cyber community of interest. This issue of Military Cyber Affairs (MCA) represents the first one published in collaboration with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering OUSD (R&E), also known as the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and their growing VICEROY program. MCPA’s newly established Military Cyber Institute (MCI) has also guided this issue. MCI is MCPA’s research and publications initiative, and I am humbled and honored to serve as the inaugural Director of the Military Cyber Institute.
Every article in this issue was selected from research submitted by VICEROY student and faculty scholars. These thought-provoking themes report on China’s cyber intelligence, machine learning, threats in space, advanced persistent threat attack flows, analysis tools, digital twins to protect biomanufacturing, and ethical hacking. I trust you will value the timely topics that highlight the breadth of our dynamic field by advancing insights that improve our understanding.
In addition to our authors, I thank the national sponsors of the MCPA who enable this important work: Microsoft, Capitol Technology University, Google Cloud, Peraton, Lockheed Martin, CrowdStrike, VICEROY, New York University (NYU) Center for Global Affairs, and Cisco. Dr. Randy Borum, Senior Editor, and the University of South Florida (USF) Library System deserve special acknowledgement for their continuing support. Finally, I thank our VICEROY faculty advisors, article reviewers, our MCA Editor in Chief - Dr. Tomas A. Peña, fellow MCA Contributing Editor - Dr. Saba Sattar, MCA Special Advisor - Dr. Joseph Billingsley, the rest of the MCA team, and especially the many MCPA volunteers who make this work possible. Enjoy!
Dr. Joseph H. Schafer Contributing Editor Director, Military Cyber Institute
Articles
Commercial Enablers of China’s Cyber-Intelligence and Information Operations
Ethan Mansour and Victor Mukora
Securing the Void: Assessing the Dynamic Threat Landscape of Space
Brianna Bace and Dr. Unal Tatar
Machine Learning Security for Tactical Operations
Dr. DeNaria Fields, Shakiya A. Friend, Andrew Hermansen, Dr. Tugba Erpek, and Dr. Yalin E. Sagduyu
Generative Machine Learning for Cyber Security
James Halvorsen and Dr. Assefaw Gebremedhin
Characterizing Advanced Persistent Threats Through the Lens of Cyber Attack Flows
Logan Zeien, Caleb Chang, LTC Ekzhin Ear, and Dr. Shouhuai Xu
Surmounting Challenges in Aggregating Results from Static Analysis Tools
Dr. Ann Marie Reinhold, Brittany Boles, A. Redempta Manzi Muneza, Thomas McElroy, and Dr. Clemente Izurieta
Using Digital Twins to Protect Biomanufacturing from Cyberattacks
Brenden Fraser-Hevlin, Alec W. Schuler, B. Arda Gozen, and Bernard J. Van Wie
Improving Ethics Surrounding Collegiate-Level Hacking Education: Recommended Implementation Plan & Affiliation with Peer-Led Initiatives
Shannon Morgan and Dr. Sanjay Goel
Editors
- Editor in Chief
- Dr. Tomas A. Pena
- Contributing Editor
- Dr. Joseph Schafer
- Contributing Editor
- Dr. Saba Sattar
