Botnets have been recognised as a possible threat to national security, and over recent years national cyber security thinkers have started to draft national level strategies to reduce the threat posed. The steady increase in the number of infected machines and the damage caused by botnet-mounted attacks shows that the success so far has been limited. This research analyses nation-state and inter-state level botnet defence and mitigation strategies and ultimately evaluates their impact on the botnet threat by employing the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method on empirical data collected via interviews from experts in the field.
This paper develops and presents a system of nation-state level strategy groups and a simple model of effects they might have on the botnet threat. Based on this framework, the reciprocal influence of each element pair is identified, with the help of knowledgeable experts, and serves as the basis to conduct an analysis utilising the DEMATEL method.
As a result, the author presents a model of the influence that these strategy groups have on the botnet threat, identify strongly and weakly influential elements in this system and present a ranking based on these findings. This will lead to a recommendation as to which is the preferred strategy.
Published in: Proceedings of 11th European Conference on Information Warfare and Security.
Available on: http://academic-conferences.org/pdfs/ECIW_2012-Abstract-booklet.pdf