Date of Award
6-17-2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Department of Systems Engineering and Management
First Advisor
Michael R. Grimaila, PhD
Abstract
Military organizations have embedded information technology (IT) into their core mission processes as a means to increase operational efficiency, improve decision-making quality, and shorten the sensor-to-shooter cycle. This IT-to-mission dependence can place the organizational mission at risk when an information incident (e.g., the loss or manipulation of a critical information resource) occurs. Non-military organizations typically address this type of IT risk through an introspective, enterprise-wide focused risk management program that continuously identifies, prioritizes, and documents risks so an economical set of control measures (e.g., people, processes, technology) can be selected to mitigate the risks to an acceptable level. The explicit valuation of information resources in terms of their ability to support the organizational mission objectives provides transparency and enables the creation of a continuity of operations plan and an incident recovery plan. While this type of planning has proven successful in static environments, military missions often involve dynamically changing, time-sensitive, complex, coordinated operations involving multiple organizational entities. As a consequence, risk mitigation efforts tend to be localized to each organizational entity making the enterprise-wide risk management approach to mission assurance infeasible. This thesis investigates the concept of mission assurance and presents a content analysis of existing continuity of operations elements within military and non-military guidance to assess the current policy landscape to highlight best practices and identify policy gaps in an effort to further enhance mission assurance by improving the timeliness and relevance of notification following an information incident.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-GIR-ENV-10-J01
DTIC Accession Number
ADA524935
Recommended Citation
Hale, Brian L., "Mission Assurance: A Review of Continuity of Operations Guidance for Application to Cyber Incident Mission Impact Assessment (CIMIA)" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2137.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/2137