cognitive dimension

George Washington called West Point, "the key to the continent." The reasoning that Washington employed in establishing the fortifications at West Point is instructive to modern cyber warriors.

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attackers accomplish their attack objectives by co-opting users' credentials. Traditional cyber defenses leave users vulnerable to APT attacks which employ spearphishing. The success of spearphishing attacks is not a data processing failure, but is the result of defenders failing to apply the principles of Human System Integration to the problem of spearphishing. We discuss an alternative defensive strategy which addresses human performance capabilities and limitations to disrupt spearphishing attacks.