Cyber situation awareness and teamwork

Abstract

Cyber analysis is a complex task that requires the coordination of a large sociotechnical system of human analysts working together with technology. Adequate situation awareness of such a complex system requires more than aggregate situation awareness of individuals. Teamwork in the form of communication and information coordination is at the heart of team-level situation awareness. In this position paper, we report observations from previously conducted cognitive task analyses that suggest that teamwork is lacking in many cyber analysis organizations. Communication is ineffective, team roles are inconsistent across organizations, reward structures and selection may thwart collaboration, and the environment is conducive to individual work. Suggestions for improving teamwork in the cyber domain are offered.