As AI-powered network defense cyber operations (DCO) tools, or AI-based defenses, become more prevalent and critical to our security, our adversaries are stepping up their efforts to evade detection by these technologies by leveraging adversarial AI techniques, such as data obfuscation and data poisoning [Subedar 2019]. At this time, to our knowledge, no publicly available method exists for thoroughly and methodologically evaluating the capabilities of an AI-enabled DCO tool nor to quantify the degree to which those capabilities remain effective despite adversarial manipulation. The DoD requires an evaluation methodology to practically test the defensive capabilities of an AI defense that is protecting a network.

The objective of this project is to develop a methodology for evaluating the capabilities of an AI defense using publicly available information of defensive network capabilities. Without such a methodology, DoD organizations must either (1) refuse to use AI defenses since they cannot properly test them, (2) apply traditional cybersecurity testing techniques that do not test for AI-specific properties, such as susceptibility to data poisoning, or (3) perform unprincipled ad hoc testing. None of these three options are satisfactory; they can result in the DoD having an unjustified confidence in the quality of their cyber defenses.

The goal of this project is to create a two-part methodology that will

• enable the evaluation capabilities of an AI-enabled network DCO tools
• enumerate the principles by which the efficacy of an AI-based DCO tool might be reduced when subjected to adversarial evasions

The completed extensible evaluation methodology will

• produce a new capability for the DoD—to test and evaluate the defensive capabilities of an AI defense under realistic conditions
• represent an increase in the state-of-the-art in broader cybersecurity, as there is not yet a principled methodology for evaluating the defensive capabilities for an AI defense for enterprise networks
• allow the DoD to repeatably test AI defenses to examine whether they have the desired defensive benefits, representing an increase in capability
• lead to a deeper understanding about detecting and mitigating obfuscations and data poisoning with next-generation DCO tools