CyBOK — The Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge

Cybersecurity, like other industries, has seen an explosion in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies in recent years. AI and ML can help to automate tasks. Data-driven approaches in general can draw patterns from vast volumes of data far quicker than humans are can. This episode summarises the state of AI for security at the time of writing and highlights some of the considerations to guide whether it is an appropriate approach for a given problem, common pitfalls to avoid, and human-AI ecosystems.AI is challenged by several open research areas including lack of transparency, robustness to concept drift, and the security of AI systems themselves. This topic guide is for those looking to build and/or procure AI solutions to use for cybersecurity applications. Some sections are more relevant for those building and others to those procuring solutions. We speak with CyBOK AI for Securityauthor Matilda Rhode for an overview of the topic.

The Security Economics Knowledge Guide introduces some of the most impactful ways economics has helped to shed light on cybersecurity problems and frame solutions that blend private and public action. The guide focuses on the organizational, rather than individual, perspective, which is where the majority of scholarly activity has focused. The author of this knowledge guides shares canonical security failures from an economic perspective, describes key measurement challenges, reviews firm-level approaches to improving cybersecurity, and discusses available public-policy options. We speak with CyBOK Security Economicsauthor Tyler Moore for an overview of the topic.

Machine Learning (ML) has rapidly become a fundamental technology that underpins count- less applications, from natural language processing and computer vision to fraud detection and personalized recommendations. In recent years, there has been a growing understanding of how to use ML in security contexts, leading to the development of advanced tools and techniques for detecting and preventing malicious activities. However, the security and privacy aspects of ML itself remain less understood, posing new challenges and opportunities for researchers and practitioners. This Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge (CyBoK) Knowledge Guide (KG) aims to define the scope of adversarial machine learning and privacy in ML and provide an overview of the state- of-the-art in these rapidly evolving fields. Our focus is on the key challenges, open problems, and promising solutions that have emerged in the context of securing and preserving the privacy of ML systems. We speak with CyBOK Security and Privacy of AI authors Lorenzo Cavallaro and Emiliano De Cristofaro for an overview of the topic.

The ubiquity of networking allows us to connect all sorts of devices and gain unprecedented access to a whole range of applications and services anytime, anywhere. However, our heavy reliance on networking technology also makes it an attractive target for malicious users who are willing to compromise the security of our communications and/or cause disruption to services that are critical for our day-to-day survival in a connected world. The Network Security 2.0 knowledge area explains the challenges associated with securing a network under a variety of attacks for a number of networking technologies and widely used security protocols, along with emerging security challenges and solutions. We speak with CyBOK Network Security 2.0 author Christian Rossow for an overview of the topic.

The Formal Methods knowledge area surveys the most relevant topics in formal methods for security. As a discipline, formal methods address foundations, methods and tools, based on mathematics and logic, for rigourously developing and reasoning about computer systems, whether they be software, hardware, or a combination of the two. The application of formal methods to security has emerged over recent decades as a well-established research area focused on the specification and proof of security properties of systems, their components, and protocols. We speak with CyBOK Formal Methods author David Basin for an overview of the topic.

The Applied Cryptography knowledge area This document provides a broad introduction to the field of cryptography, focusing on applied aspects of the subject. It complements the CyBoK document [1] which focuses on formal aspects of cryptography (including definitions and proofs) and on describing the core cryptographic primitives. That said, formal aspects are highly relevant when considering applied cryptography. As we shall see, they are increasingly important when it comes to providing security assurance for real-world deployments of cryptography. We speak with CyBOK Applied Cryptography author Kenny Paterson for an overview of the topic.

The purpose of the Web and Mobile Security chapter is to provide an overview of security mechanisms, attacks and defences in modern web and mobile ecosystems. Web and mobile security have become the primary means through which many users interact with the Internet and computing systems. Hence, their impact on overall information security is significant due to the sheer prevalence of web and mobile applications (apps). Covering both web and mobile security, this Knowledge Area emphasises the intersection of their security mechanisms, vulnerabilities and mitigations.  We speak with CyBOK Web and Mobile Security author Sascha Fahl for an introductory overview of the topic.

The purpose of the Adversarial Behaviours chapter is to provide an overview of the malicious operations that are happening on the Internet today. The chapter discusses how these frameworks can be used by researchers and practitioners to develop effective mitigations against malicious online operations. We speak with CyBOK Distributed Systems Security author Gianluca Stringhini for an introductory overview of the topic.

The purpose of the Distributed Systems Security chapter is to introduce the different classes of distributed systems categorising them into two broad categories of decentralised distributed systems (without central coordination) and the coordinated resource/services type of distributed systems. Subsequently, each of these distributed system categories is expounded for the conceptual mechanisms providing their characteristic functionalities prior to discussing the security issues pertinent to these systems. We speak with CyBOK Distributed Systems Security author Neeraj Suri for an introductory overview of the topic.

The purpose of the Law and Regulation chapter is to provide a snapshot of legal and regulatory topics that merit consideration when conducting various activities in the field of cyber security such as: security management, risk assessment, security testing, forensic investigation, research, product and service development, and cyber operations (defensive and offensive). The hope is to provide a framework that shows the cyber security practitioner the most common categories of legal and regulatory risk that apply to these activities, and to highlight (where possible) some sources of legal authority and scholarship.. We speak with CyBOK Law and Regulation author Robert Carolina for an introductory overview of the topic.