<p>Cyber counterintelligence (CCI) could be the United States' best defense against Chinese cyber aggression of Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CIKR). The need to defend CIKR is essential to public safety and national defense. As technology evolves and continues to march towards the inevitable connectedness that brings systems in sync with one another, the United States becomes more vulnerable. Of the 16 total sector specific areas of United States’ assets, the Communications and Information Technology (IT) sectors are constantly under attack from threats both foreign and domestic. United States network defense claims billions of dollars invested in legacy protections such as traditional and next-generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, anti-virus, and web gateways, all of which no longer stop advanced malware or targeted Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). The purpose of this research was to examine the use of CCI in defending the United States’ Communications and IT sectors against Chinese cyber threats. Why is CCI important to CIKR defense? How does CCI fit into the United States Intelligence Community's (USIC) plan? What are some methodologies used to conduct CCI? What motives does China have for targeting critical infrastructure? The nation relies on the Intelligence Community (IC) to be the eyes and ears of national defense. Information warfare needs active counterintelligence (CI) to act as an offensive weapon, a tool for rooting out attackers. Through misdirection, deception, and denial, cybersecurity professionals and the IC can prevent the next disaster. CI by nature can be offensive and active and it can be the first line of defense meant to mark targets and prevent them from harming essential systems. Keywords: Cybersecurity, Professor Cynthia Gonnella, Cyber, Intelligence, Counterintelligence, Critical Infrastructure Key Resources, CIKR. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1555786 |
| Date | 18 June 2014 |
| Creators | Boawn, Daniel L. |
| Publisher | Utica College |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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