Suggestions to measure cyber power and proposed metrics for cyber warfare operations (cyberdeterrence/cyber power)

Abstract

How does one measure cyber power? Though there are many established methods for measuring power, none of these can be satisfactorily applied to the cyber domain, and these shortcomings were recognized two decades ago. "Traditional measures of military force, gross national product, population, energy, land, and minerals have continued to dominate discussions of the balance of power. These power resources still matter, and American leadership continues to depend on them as well as on the information edge... Information power is also hard to categorize because it cuts across all other military, economic, social, and political power resources, in some cases diminishing their strength, in others multiplying it ". (Nye and Owens, 1996, p.22). The author is also trying to determine the metrics of cyber operations, ie how does one measure success? The ability to measure and validate success is always a crucial metric in the performance of a task, and in this case the conduct of an Information Warfare (IW) campaigns is no different. This research analyses two approaches for the development of metrics in a Cyber environment: • A top-down approach with a strong feedback mechanism, one that allows actors to learn lessons from their actions and to apply changes to the system as deemed appropriate. • A more decentralised methodology, which embraced any and all IW standards. This bottom-up view utilises a more liberal process for collecting metrics that attempts to bring together disparate activities into a collective force. This paper will analyse the efforts of various IW initiatives by both sides, and attempt to determine the key factors of success.