Cyber SA: Situational Awareness for Cyber Defense

Cyber SA is described as the current and predictive knowledge of cyberspace in relation to the Network, Missions and Threats across friendly, neutral and adversary forces. While this model provides a good high-level understanding of Cyber SA, it does not contain actionable information to help inform the development of capabilities to improve SA. In this paper, we present a systematic, human-centered process that uses a card sort methodology to understand and conceptualize Senior Leader Cyber SA requirements. From the data collected, we were able to build a hierarchy of high- and low- priority Cyber SA information, as well as uncover items that represent high levels of disagreement with and across organizations. The findings of this study serve as a first step in developing a better understanding of what Cyber SA means to Senior Leaders, and can inform the development of future capabilities to improve their SA and Mission Performance.