Software Engineering Institute

Pittsburgh, Pa., August 9, 2018—The Emerging Technology Center at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University today issued a call for U.S.-owned organizations to participate in a cyber intelligence tradecraft survey. The survey is part of a cyber intelligence study the SEI is conducting on behalf of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Cyber intelligence—acquiring and analyzing information about cyber capabilities, intentions, and activities to enhance decision making—is a rapidly changing field.

“As an intellectual discipline, cyber intelligence is still in its relative infancy, which makes it especially important to identify and share best practices,” said Jim Richberg, ODNI’s national intelligence manager for cyber. “The insight we gain from this study will improve our ability to produce and share actionable cyber intelligence in both government and the private sector.”

The study, which the SEI will complete in 2019, will describe how organizations across the federal government, industry, and academia conduct cyber intelligence activities, identifying common challenges and best practices.

The online survey extends the reach of qualitative, in-person interviews the SEI is conducting as part of the study, which began in December 2017.

“Over the course of our interviews with organizations, we’ve noticed several trends and themes, which we’ve used to develop a survey,” said Jared Ettinger of the SEI’s cyber intelligence team. “With the online survey, we have a chance to increase the scale of our research. For example, we’ll be able to understand the use of certain tools and processes across sectors.”

The Cyber Intelligence Tradecraft Survey requires approximately 15 minutes to complete and asks questions based in five key areas: 

• environmental context (factors that shape an organization’s cyber intelligence effort)
• data gathering (how an organization collects information)
• functional analysis (the technical “what” and “how” of cyber intelligence)
• strategic analysis (the “who” and “why” of cyber intelligence)
• decision-maker reporting and feedback (how a cyber intelligence team interacts with leadership) 

The SEI will issue a report based on the study in early 2019.

The SEI team is still accepting organizations for in-person interviews and specifically invites organizations from the manufacturing, healthcare, food and agriculture, and water sectors to apply. Interview participants receive a private comparative analysis of their own cyber intelligence efforts as well as access to overall study results prior to public release.

To complete the survey, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SEI_CITP. For more information about the study, see https://www.sei.cmu.edu/about/organization/etc/citp.cfm. Organizations wishing to participate in an in-person interview should contact the SEI at cyber-intel@sei.cmu.edu.