Effective team process is critical for the performance of cyber security teams. To examine this, we observed two comparably skilled cyber security teams participating in the International Capture the Flag (iCTF) competition held in December 2011. At the conclusion of the competition, we followed up with a focus group discussion with six members from the two teams. In this paper, we present our findings from the focus group interviews, on the relationship between team level factors and team performance. Findings from the focus group discussion indicate that team level factors such as team communication, coordination, team structure, and leadership play important roles in team performance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenN. J.HechtT. D. (2004). The “romance of teams”: Toward an understanding of its psychological underpinnings and implications. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 439–461.
BoeB.ChildersN.VignaG. (2010) Hacking for Fun and Education: Organizing the UCSB iCTF. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Graduate Student Workshop on Computing. October 8, 2010.
4.
ChampionM.RajivanP.CookeN. J.JariwalaS. (2012). Team-Based Cyber Defense Analysis. 2012 IEEE International Multi-Dsiciplinary Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support, March 6-8, New Orleans, LA.
5.
ChildersN.BoeB.CavallaroL.CavedonL.CovaM.EgeleM.VignaG. (2010). Organizing large scale hacking competitions. Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment, 132–152.
6.
CookeN. J.GormanJ.WinnerJ. (2007). Team Cognition. In DursoF.NickersonR.DumaisS.LewandowskyS.PerfectT., Handbook of Applied Cognition, Second Edition (pp. 239–268). Wiley.
7.
D’AmicoA.WhitleyK.TesoneD.O’BrienB.RothE. (2005). Achieving Cyber Defense Situational Awareness: A cognitive task analysis of information assurance analysts. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 49th Annual Meeting -2005, 2005, 229–233.
8.
De DreuC.WeingartL. (2003). Task Versus Relationship Conflict, Team Performance, and Team Member Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (4), 741-749.
9.
DoupéA.EgeleM.CaillatB.StringhiniG.YakinG.ZandA.CavedonL.. (2011). Hit’em Where it Hurts: A Live Security Exercise on Cyber Situational Awareness. In 27th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. Dec 5-9, 2011.
10.
EntinE. E.SerfatyD. (1999). Adaptive team coordination. Human Factors, 41, 312-325.
11.
FioreS. M.SalasE.CuevasH. M.BowersC. A. (2003). Distributed Coordination Space: Toward a Theory of Distributed Team Process and Performance. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 4(3-4), 340–364.
12.
IrvineC. (2011). The Value of Capture-the-Flag Exercises in Education. Education, 58–60.
13.
KraemerS.CarayonP.DugganR. (2004). Red Team Performance for Improved Computer Security. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th annual meeting (pp. 1604-1609). Santa Monica: Sage Publications.
14.
LafondD.JobidonM.-E.AubéC.TremblayS. (2011). Evidence of structure-specific teamwork requirements and implications for team design. Small Group Research. 42,507–535.
15.
LewisK. (2003). Measuring transactive memory systems in the field: Scale development and validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (4), 587–604.
16.
MaloneT.CrowstonK. (1994). The Interdisciplinary Study of Coordination. ACM Computing Surveys, 26 (1), 87-119.
17.
McCloskeyM.StanardT. (1999). A Red Team Analysis of the Electronic Battlefield: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How Hackers Work In Groups. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 1999 (pp. 179-183). Sage Publications.
18.
StanardT.ThordsonM.McCloskeyM.VincentP. (2001). Cognitive Task Analysis and Work-Centered Support System Recommendations for a Deployed Network Operations Support Center (NOSC-D). Air Force Research Laboratory.
19.
SalasE.CookeN. J.RosenM. (2008). On Teams, Teamwork, and Team Performance: Discoveries and Developments. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 540-547.
20.
TremblayS.VachinF.LafondDKramerC. (2012). Dealing with task interruptions in complex dynamic environments: Are two heads better than one?Human Factors, 54, 70-83.
21.
WegnerD. M. (1986). Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In MullenB.GoethalsG. R. (Eds.), Theories of group behavior, 185- 208. New York: Springer-Verlag.
22.
Vienna University of Technology seclab. (n.d.). The UCSB iCTF. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from The UCSB iCTF: http://ictf.cs.ucsb.edu/ UCSB iCTF. (n.d.) UCSB iCTF. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from http://ictf.cs.ucsb.edu.
