Towards a Systematic View on Cybersecurity Ecology

Abstract: Current network security systems are progressively showing their limitations. One credible estimate is that only about 45% of new threats are detected. Therefore it is vital to find a new direction that cybersecurity development should follow. We argue that the next generation of cybersecurity systems should seek inspiration in nature. This approach has been used before in the first generation of cybersecurity systems; however, since then cyber threats and environment have evolved significantly, and accordingly the first-generation systems have lost their effectiveness. A next generation of bio-inspired cybersecurity research is emerging, but progress is hindered by the lack of a framework for mapping biological security systems to their cyber analogies. In this paper, using terminology and concepts from biology, we describe a cybersecurity ecology and a framework that may be used to systematically research and develop bio-inspired cybersecurity.