A Red Team Analysis of the Electronic Battlefield: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How Hackers Work in Groups

Abstract

The nature of battle is evolving. As technology continues to evolve and the world becomes more interconnected, the potential for cyber-terrorism and hacker crime continues to grow. Malicious hackers have been developing tools and strategies for years that enable them to work in distributed teams and launch coordinated, synchronized attacks against targets of their choice. If we are to effectively combat the enemies of cyberspace, we need to first understand how they operate. When they work in groups, how do they form? How do they identify goals? How do they share information when they are a distributed team? Klein Associates is in the process of studying the behaviors and motivations of hackers and hacker groups. We can learn many lessons from the actions of these skilled individuals that will help network security professionals better understand and counter the threats they face.