Multi-dimensional structural data integration for proactive cyber-defence

The current cyber defences at technical and operational levels have consistently proven inefficient to counter the ever-growing sophistication of the adversary and modern cyber-attacks. Given the interconnectedness of modern societies, physical and cyber events, building proactive cyber defence models that consider the interconnectedness of events and activities across the physical, social and economic realities of cyberspace is an important task that helps detect early warning signs of cyber-attacks and predict the future occurrences of cyber-attacks. The concept of The Entangled cyberspace as introduced in this paper, is a cyber-defence analytical framework that captures the effects of activities on one layer of cyberspace, on the events that emerge on other layers of cyberspace. This article describes cyberspace from an analytical perspective and identifies primary sources of data and information from various layers of cyberspace. The framework provides a solid foundation for building proactive cyber defence models from a seemingly entangled cyberspace.