Defining a Framework for Decision Making in Cyberspace

This report is the product of a group of experts, which was convened by the Department of Computer Science at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). IUP brought together an interdisciplinary panel of experts in national security, international relations, foreign policy, information system network and security, public policy, and computer science. These experts participated in two collaborative roundtable meetings during the first six months of 2014.

The results of the roundtable discussions, as well as other research conducted by the author, are presented in this report. The report makes a series of recommendations for leaders to consider in developing a greater understanding of cyberspace, including the value of a broad and commonly accepted definition to help guide management actions in cyberspace. The panel of experts found that a better definition of cyberspace was needed, as well as an increased understanding of the concept of “strategic domains.”

Recent events demonstrate that global cyber activity is becoming ever-more prevalent as an issue for governments to address. Accordingly, we hope that cyberspace decision makers will find this report to be helpful as they manage and make decisions about cyberspace programs in the years ahead.