Enhancements    

PSYCCDEF: PSYCHOLOGICALLY-INSPIRED COGNITIVE CYBER DEFENSES: OVERALL BUDGET

PSYCCDEF: PSYCHOLOGICALLY-INSPIRED COGNITIVE CYBER DEFENSES: OVERALL BUDGET
PI: Palvi Aggarwal
Co-PI: Chris Kiekintveld
Sponsor: PERATON INC.
Computer Science
Amount awarded: $1,656,355

Research in psychology identified various cognitive biases in human decision-making. Within the context of cybersecurity, attackers have been exploiting the users' cognitive biases by strategically crafting phishing and spear phishing emails. To date, the defenders are not learning about such vulnerabilities in attackers and exploiting them to gain an advantage. Cyber deception in the form of honeypots has been the most widely used tactic against human adversaries to learn about the attack strategies and waste their time and efforts. In this project, we propose to advance the existing work about learning cyber-relevant bias in various phases of the cyber kill chain, understanding how the biases are triggered and can be measured to effectively exploit and disrupt attackers' decision-making processes. In collaboration with Peraton Labs (Lead), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and the University of Washington (UW), we propose PsyCCDef: Psychologically-inspired Cognitive Cyber Defenses. Our multi- disciplinary team includes experts in computer science, behavioral science, cognitive psychology, cognitive modeling, cyber attack modeling, pen-testing, red teaming, AI/ML, statistical data analysis, software development and engineering, computer security, and network security with experience in studying cyber attacker cognitive biases, cognitive modeling of such attackers, triggering of such biases using cyber deception, and implementation of these capabilities in CyberVAN, a high-fidelity cyber range.

Posting date: Tue, 07/16/2024

Award start date: Mon, 01/22/2024
Award end date: Thu, 10/21/2027