Past Challenges and the Future of Discrete Event Simulation

The American scientist Carl Sagan once said: “You have to know the past to understand the present.” We argue that having a meaningful dialogue on the future of simulation requires a baseline understanding of previous discussions on its future. For this paper, we conduct a review of the discrete event simulation (DES) literature that focuses on its future to understand better the path that DES has been following, both in terms of who is using simulation and what directions they think DES should take. Our review involves a qualitative literature review of DES and a quantitative bibliometric analysis of the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) literature. The results from the bibliometric study imply that demographics of the M&S community are rapidly changing, both in terms of the nations that use M&S and the academic disciplines from which new simulationists hail. This change in demographics has the potential to help aid the community face some of its future challenges. Our qualitative literature review indicates that DES still faces some significant challenges: these include integrating human behavior; using simulation for exploration, not replication; determining return on investment; and communication issues across a splitting community

Determining Small Business Cybersecurity Strategies to Prevent Data Breaches

Cybercrime is one of the quickest growing areas of criminality. Criminals abuse the speed, accessibility, and privacy of the Internet to commit diverse crimes involving data and identity theft that cause severe damage to victims worldwide. Many small businesses do not have the financial and technological means to protect their systems from cyberattack, making them vulnerable to data breaches. This exploratory multiple case study, grounded in systems thinking theory and routine activities theory, encompassed an investigation of cybersecurity strategies used by 5 small business leaders in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The data collection process involved open-ended online questionnaires, semistructured face-to-face interviews, and review of company documents. Based on methodological triangulation of the data sources and inductive analysis, 3 emergent themes identified are policy, training, and technology. Key findings include having a specific goal and tactical approach when creating small business cybersecurity strategies and arming employees with cybersecurity training to increase their awareness of security compliance. Recommendations include small business use of cloud computing to remove the burden of protecting data on their own, thus making it unnecessary to house corporate servers. The study has implications for positive social change because small business leaders may apply the findings to decrease personal information leakage, resulting from data breaches, which affects the livelihood of individuals or companies if disclosure of their data occurs

Command and Control in the Information Age: A Case Study of a Representative Air Power Command and Control Node

As operations command structures change, it is important to be able to explore and understand their fundamental nature; researchers should unearth the gestalt nature of the operational node. The organizational structure and the infrastructure can significantly affect overall command and control (C2) performance. Thus, it is necessary to develop understanding of effectiveness of the technical network and the people using the system as a whole. The purpose of this research is to conduct an analysis of a representative Air Power Operational C2 node, create and use a repeatable method, and present the results as a case study to elicit fundamental understanding. I posit that there is a recognizable (and discoverable) relationship between the social (human) network and technical supporting network. Examining the system under change can result in an understanding of this relationship. In this work, I enhanced an existing simulation tool to investigate the effects of organizational structure on task effectiveness. The primary research question examined is how a representative AOC system changes varying noise and system fragmentation when operating in two different organizational constructs. Network-Enabled Capability (as the term is used in NATO), Network Centric Operations, or Edge Organizations, is a core C2 transformation predicated upon a set of network-centric tenets. These tenets form the intellectual foundation for ongoing transformations. The secondary research question is to determine if these tenets are unbound, and what elucidation results if they are not. This research produces four significant contributions to Operational Command and Control and Engineering Management disciplines. First, I combined social networking theory and information theory into a single lens for evaluation. By using this new concept, I will be able to accomplish a quantitative evaluation by something other than mission treads, field exercise, historical evaluation, or actual combat. Second, I used both information theory and social networking concepts in a non-traditional setting. Third, I hope this research will start the process required to gain the knowledge to achieve some sort of future C2 structure. Fourth, this research suggests directions for future research to enhance understanding of core Operational Command and Control concepts

Strategies Used to Mitigate Social Engineering Attacks

Cybercriminal activity performed widely through social engineering attacks is estimated to be one of the substantial challenges the world will face over the next 20 years. Cybercriminal activity is important to chief information security officers (CISOs) because these attacks represent the largest transfer of economic wealth in history and pose risks to the incentives for organizational innovation and investment and eventually become more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined. Grounded in the balanced control theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies CISOs use to mitigate social engineering attacks within their organizations. Participants consisted of 6 CISOs across 6 small to medium-sized organizations that handle payment card industry data in the West Coast region of the United States of America. Data were collected from CISOs by semi structured telephone interviews. Data were analyzed through interview transcription, in-depth exploration of phenomena, data coding development, and the identification of links to themes. Three major themes emerged from the data analysis: information technology (IT) risks, security awareness, and IT strategies. A key recommendation is for CISOs to develop security awareness programs and implement technical, formal, and informal controls, to sustain operations and protect their networks from potential social engineering attacks. The implications for positive social change include the potential for (a) the mitigation of social engineering attacks, (b) the protection of both organizational and consumer data, and (c) an increase in consumer confidence resulting in increased economic prosperity

Implementation Strategies for Modeling and Simulation in Military Organizations

Some IT project managers working for U.S. military organizations are struggling to implement modern modeling and simulation (M&S) technology. Implementation strategies are needed to help IT practitioners deliver meaningful simulations and models that ultimately help senior leaders make logical and science-based decisions. Grounded in the extended technology acceptance model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies some IT project managers supporting U.S. military organizations use to implement modern M&S technology. The participants included 10 civil servants who successfully implemented modeling and simulation technology for military organizations located in the United States eastern region. Data was collected from one-on-one semistructured interviews (n = 10) and internal and external organizational documents (n = 12) provided by the participants. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three major themes emerged: understand the true M&S requirements, incorporate subject matter experts throughout implementation, and anticipate and overcome persistent challenges. One recommendation is for practitioners to develop tasks and milestones to address these challenges at the beginning of implementation and add them to the project schedule. The implications for positive social change include the potential for successful implementation of models and military organizations\u27 simulations to safeguard human lives

Retail Inventory Control Strategies

Despite using computerized merchandise control systems in retail, the rate of stockouts has remained stagnant. The inability to satisfy customer needs has caused a loss of 4% in potential revenue and resulted in dissatisfied customers. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore cost-effective inventory control strategies used by discount retail managers. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was chaos theory, which helped identify why some business leaders rely on forecasting techniques or other cost-effective strategies as an attempt to prevent stockouts. The target population was comprised of discount retail managers located throughout northeast Jacksonville, Florida. Purposeful sampling led to selecting 6 retail managers who successfully demonstrated cost-effective inventory control strategies for mitigating stockouts. Data were collected through face-to-face semistructured interviews, company websites, and company documents. Analysis included using nodes to identify similar words and axial-coding to categorize the nodes into themes. Transcript evaluation, member checking, and methodological triangulation strengthened the credibility of the findings. Five themes emerged: (a) internal stockout reduction strategies, (b) external stockout reduction strategies, (c) replenishment system strategies, (d) inventory optimization strategies, and (e) best practices for inventory control. This study may contribute to positive social change by improving inventory management, which may reduce demand fluctuations in the supply chain and reduce logistics costs in the transportation of freight thereby leading to improved customer satisfaction

Compilation of thesis abstracts, December 2006

NPS Class of December 2006This quarter’s Compilation of Abstracts summarizes cutting-edge, security-related research conducted by NPS students and presented as theses, dissertations, and capstone reports. Each expands knowledge in its field.http://archive.org/details/compilationofsis109452750

Research and Technology Highlights 1995

The mission of the NASA Langley Research Center is to increase the knowledge and capability of the United States in a full range of aeronautics disciplines and in selected space disciplines. This mission is accomplished by performing innovative research relevant to national needs and Agency goals, transferring technology to users in a timely manner, and providing development support to other United States Government agencies, industry, other NASA Centers, the educational community, and the local community. This report contains highlights of the major accomplishments and applications that have been made by Langley researchers and by our university and industry colleagues during the past year. The highlights illustrate both the broad range of research and technology (R&T) activities carried out by NASA Langley Research Center and the contributions of this work toward maintaining United States leadership in aeronautics and space research. An electronic version of the report is available at URL http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/RandT95. This color version allows viewing, retrieving, and printing of the highlights, searching and browsing through the sections, and access to an on-line directory of Langley researchers

A Systemic Approach to Next Generation Infrastructure Data Elicitation and Planning Using Serious Gaming Methods

Infrastructure systems are vital to the functioning of our society and economy. However, these systems are increasingly complex and are more interdependent than ever, making them difficult to manage. In order to respond to increasing demand, environmental concerns, and natural and man-made threats, infrastructure systems have to adapt and transform. Traditional engineering design approaches and planning tools have proven to be inadequate when planning and managing these complex socio-technical system transitions. The design and implementation of next generation infrastructure systems require holistic methodologies, encompassing organizational and societal aspects in addition to technical factors. In order to do so, a serious gaming based risk assessment methodology is developed to assist infrastructure data elicitation and planning. The methodology combines the use of various models, commercial-off-the-shelf solutions and a gaming approach to aggregate the inputs of various subject matter experts (SMEs) to predict future system characteristics. The serious gaming based approach enables experts to obtain a thorough understanding of the complexity and interdependency of the system while offering a platform to experiment with various strategies and scenarios. In order to demonstrate its abilities, the methodology was applied to National Airspace System (NAS) overhaul and its transformation to Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). The implemented methodology yielded a comprehensive safety assessment and data generation mechanism, embracing the social and technical aspects of the NAS transformation for the next 15 years

Strategies for Implementing a Successful Enterprise Resource Planning System

The U.S. Department of Defense executives consider enterprise resource planning systems as a critical technology because of increasingly global operations and audit compliance pressures, which may affect organizational performance and overall success. The estimated cost to implement enterprise resources systems to avoid failure and meet budget cost across the Department of Defense services and agencies has ranged from $530 million to$2.4 billion. Guided by the general systems theory, the purpose of this single-case study was to explore enterprise resource planning strategies developed and implemented by United States Marine Corps military leaders. Data collection consisted of a review of organizational documents and semistructured interviews of 5 organizational leaders in a United States Marine Corps base in Albany, Georgia. Data analysis entailed interview transcription, keyword and phrase coding, and emergent theme identification. The prominent emergent themes were essential strategic planning guidance and organizational leaders and change management, which are the essential components for effectively implementing enterprise resource planning systems. The Department of Defense executives and senior leaders may use the findings of this study to develop an essential strategic plan, which could reduce the excessive cost and over-budget associated with enterprise resource planning systems. Social change implications include enhancing end user knowledge and reducing inefficiencies within organizations to improve corporate social responsibility