A Qualia Framework for Awareness in Cyberspace

As the newest mission area for the US Air Force, cyberspace is getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so. Every person, system, and device that communicates via the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum is a part of this fascinating domain. Cyberspace is not new...it has been around for many years. However, our understanding of how this domain can be exploited has increased dramatically in recent years. As users and managers of cyberspace, we need to know what is happening in this domain. More importantly, we must know how to defend our cyber resources, exploit an adversary's use of the domain, and hold the adversary's operations at risk if need be. All of this requires cyberspace awareness. This is not your grandfather's awareness (one-size-fits-all data overload), but awareness based upon what is relevant to each individual at any level of the command hierarchy, presented in a useable form. The objective is to attain universal situational awareness, defined as awareness across all media and including all the hierarchy.