The whole of cyber defense: Syncing practice and theory

Abstract

This review explores the problems Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other cyber professionals face when defending their organization against cyberattacks. Using a Cyber Defense Grid, which was developed based on military science and cybersecurity concepts and terminology, we coded 125 articles published in Information Systems (IS) journals. We also employed three avenues (i.e., lenses) from cybernetic theory to frame the coding results to derive cyber defense strategies. In particular, we propose three strategic cyber defense modes: reactive, heuristic, and proactive. Taken together, these three modes suggest ways in which organizations can react strategically within the whole cyber defense domain.