A comparison of taxonomy generation techniques using bibliometric methods : applied to research strategy formulation

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-87).This paper investigates the modeling of research landscapes through the automatic generation of hierarchical structures (taxonomies) comprised of terms related to a given research field. Several different taxonomy generation algorithms are discussed and analyzed within this paper, each based on the analysis of a data set of bibliometric information obtained from a credible online publication database. Taxonomy generation algorithms considered include the Dijsktra-Jamik-Prim's (DJP) algorithm, Kruskal's algorithm, Edmond's algorithm, Heymann algorithm, and the Genetic algorithm. Evaluative experiments are run that attempt to determine which taxonomy generation algorithm would most likely output a taxonomy that is a valid representation of the underlying research landscape.by Steven L. Camiña.M.Eng

Towards Better Understanding Cybersecurity: or are Cyberspace and Cyber Space the Same?

Although there are many technology challenges and approaches to attaining cybersecurity, human actions (or inactions) also often pose large risks. There are many reasons, but one problem is whether we all “see the world” the same way. That is, what does “cybersecurity” actually mean – as well as the many related concepts, such as “cyberthreat,” “cybercrime,” etc. Although dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources tell you what words/phrases are supposed to mean (somewhat complicated by the fact that they often contradict each other), they do not tell you how people are actually using them. If we are to have an effective solution, it is important that all the parties understand each other – or, at least, understand that there are different perspectives

or are "Cyberspace " and "Cyber Space " the same?

Although there are many technology challenges and approaches to attaining cybersecurity, human actions (or inactions) also often pose large risks. There are many reasons, but one problem is whether we all “see the world ” the same way. That is, what does “cybersecurity ” actually mean – as well as the many related concepts, such as “cyberthreat,” “cybercrime, ” etc. Although dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources tell you what words/phrases are supposed to mean (somewhat complicated by the fact that they often contradict each other), they do not tell you how people are actually using them. If we are to have an effective solution, it is important that all the parties understand each other – or, at least, understand that there are different perspectives. For the purpose of this paper and to demonstrate our methodology, we consider the case of the words, “cyberspace ” and “cyber space. ” When we started, we assumed that “cyberspace” and “cyber space ” were essentially the same word with just a minor variation in punctuation (i.e., the space, or lack thereof, between “cyber ” and “space”) and that the choice of the punctuation was a rather random occurrence. With that assumption in mind, we would expect that the usag

Towards better understanding cybersecurity: Or are "cyberspace" and "cyber space" the same?

Although there are many technology challenges and approaches to attaining cybersecurity, human actions (or inactions) also often pose large risks. There are many reasons, but one problem is whether we all “see the world” the same way. That is, what does “cybersecurity” actually mean – as well as the many related concepts, such as “cyberthreat,” “cybercrime,” etc. Although dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources tell you what words/phrases are supposed to mean (somewhat complicated by the fact that they often contradict each other), they do not tell you how people are actually using them. If we are to have an effective solution, it is important that all the parties understand each other – or, at least, understand that there are different perspectives. For the purpose of this poster and to demonstrate our methodology, we consider the case of the words, “cyberspace” and “cyber space.” We had developed techniques and algorithms for the automated generation of taxonomies for chosen “seed terms” (such as “cyberspace” and “cyber space”) based on the co-occurrence of those words in the list of keywords of documents in large document repositories, such as Compendex and Inspec. The system that we had developed and used in this experiment employed the Heymann algorithm, closeness centrality, cosine similarity metric (which we refer to as H-CC). When we started, we assumed that “cyberspace” and “cyber space” were essentially the same word with just a minor variation in punctuation (i.e., the space, or lack thereof, between “cyber” and “space”) and that the choice of the punctuation was a rather random occurrence. With that assumption in mind, we would expect that the usage of these words would be basically the same and would produce roughly similar taxonomies. As it turned out, the taxonomies generated were quite different, both in overall shape and groupings within the taxonomy. Since the overall field of cybersecurity is so new, understanding the field and how people think about it (as evidenced by their actual usage of terminology, and how usage changes over time) is an important goal. Our approach helps to illuminate these understandings.This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research

Exploring terms and taxonomies relating to the cyber international relations research field: Or are "cyberspace" and "cyber space" the same?

This project has at least two facets to it: (1) advancing the algorithms in the sub-field of bibliometrics often referred to as "text mining" whereby hundreds of thousands of documents (such as journal articles) are scanned and relationships amongst words and phrases are established and (2) applying these tools in support of the Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR) research effort. In international relations, it is important that all the parties understand each other. Although dictionaries, glossaries, and other sources tell you what words/phrases are supposed to mean (somewhat complicated by the fact that they often contradict each other), they do not tell you how people are actually using them. As an example, when we started, we assumed that "cyberspace" and "cyber space" were essentially the same word with just a minor variation in punctuation (i.e., the space, or lack thereof, between "cyber" and "space") and that the choice of the punctuation was a rather random occurrence. With that assumption in mind, we would expect that the taxonomies that would be constructed by our algorithms using "cyberspace" and "cyber space" as seed terms would be basically the same. As it turned out, they were quite different, both in overall shape and groupings within the taxonomy. Since the overall field of cyber international relations is so new, understanding the field and how people think about (as evidenced by their actual usage of terminology, and how usage changes over time) is an important goal as part of the overall ECIR project.This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research

Explorations in cyber international relations (ECIR)—data dashboard report #1: CERT data sources and prototype dashboard system

Disclaimer: This report relies on publicly available information, especially from the CERTs’ pubic web sites. They have not yet been contacted to confirm our understanding of their data. That will be done in subsequent phases of this effort.Growing global interconnection and interdependency of computer networks, in combination with increased sophistication of cyber attacks over time, demonstrate the need for better understanding of the collective and cooperative security measures needed to prevent and respond to cybersecurity emergencies. The Exploring Cyber International Relations (ECIR) Data Dashboard project is an initial effort to gather and analyze such data within and between countries. This report describes the prototype ECIR Data Dashboard and the initial data sources used. In 1988, the United States Department of Defense and Carnegie Mellon University formed the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to lead and coordinate national and international efforts to combat cybsersecurity threats. Since then, the number of CERTs worldwide has grown dramatically, leading to the potential for a sophisticated and coordinated global cybersecurity response network. This report focuses primarily on the current state of the worldwide CERTs, including the data publicly available, the extent of coordination, and the maturity of data management and responses. The report summarizes, analyses, and critiques the worldwide CERT network. Additionally, the report describes the ECIR team's Data Dashboard project, designed to provide scholars, policymakers, IT professionals, and other stakeholders with a comprehensive set of data on national-level cybersecurity, information technology, and demographic data. The Dashboard allows these stakeholders to observe chronological trends and multivariate correlations that can lead to insight into the current state, potential future trends, and approximate causes of global cybersecurity issues. This report summarizes the purpose, state, progress, and challenges of developing the Data Dashboard project.This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research