Command and Control Security: Concepts and Practices

The United States is placing greater emphasis and reliance on command and control systems to be able to span the distances involved in, and keep pace with, a modern battlefield. This greater reliance on command and control systems also creates a potential vulnerability to disruption or defeat through successful attacks against those same systems. Security is therefore of prime importance to the design and operation of command and control systems. The goal of this thesis is to provide students of command and control (C2), as well as designers and program managers of command and control systems, a basic understanding of the need for security in C2 systems and an introduction to security measures used to counter C2 threats. The ultimate objective of this thesis is to provide a conceptual framework for the continued study and analysis of command and control security and to emphasize the need for designing security into command and control systems as an integral component. Keywords: Command and control (c2); Command control and communications (C3); Security; Military thesis.