James Caroland, U.S. Cyber Command Greg Conti, West Point

http://www.scottmckay.ca/the-blog/tag/briefs

Lessons of the Kobayashi Maru: Cheating is Fundamental

Disclaimer

The views in this article are the authors’ and don’t reflect the official policy or position of the United States MilitaryAcademy, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, United States Cyber Command, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.

Or in Esperanto...

La views en this paroli are la auxtoro kaj dont reflekti la oficiala policy aux pozicio de la United Stato Military Akademio la Department de la Armeo la Department de la Navy United Stato Cyber Koamandi la Department de Defense aux la United Stato Registaro

 

http://www.dennismansfield.com/.a/6a00d834530c9c69e201157004e41b970c-800wi

http://www.dennismansfield.com/.a/6a00d834530c9c69e201157004e41b970c-800wi

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Test_%28student_assessment%29.jpeg

http://stuffmysisterswilllike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/cadet-james-t-kirk-during-the-kobayashi-maru-scenario.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z35/demonoidtmn/Nar24.png

Joint Advanced Cyber Warfare Course (JACWC)

Setup of "Test"• Provide virtually no notice

 • Choose "unfair" problem

 • Tell students don't want them

to study... we want them to cheat

 • Collaborative cheating was

encouraged, but this exercise wasn't a blanket license to cheat throughout the course

  

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852105559644622948954930

Examples

The False Book Cover

The Everyday Object

http://www.grainger.com

The Ceiling Tile

http://www.imaginghostingservice.com/d2ap2c11da4087.jpg

Hiding in Plain Sight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hp_laserjet_4200dtns.jpg

Prepositioned Answers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mengu_Ziyun_xia_24b.jpg

Alternate Encoding

Morse Code

Story Encoded

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Post-it-note-transparent.png

The Classic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EssayImageAction.png

Precompiled Answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EssayImageAction.png

rand()

3.1415926535 + 90 random digits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mengu_Ziyun_xia_24b.jpg

Power Point

3.141592653587932384626433327950288419769399375105829749445923078

3.141592653587932384626433327950288419769399375105829749445923078

3.141592653587932384626433327950288419769399375105829749445923078

  Slide 1                          Slide 2                          Slide 3

Hash marks

Obscured by wholesome goodness

Ubiquitous Coffee

Ubiquitous Coffee

demo

Notebook Camouflage

Notebook Camouflage

demo

Roach clip engraving

Fake Barcodes

Customized jewelry

Artist daughter + code

Security Lessons Learned

•  Most people are pretty darn good at cheatingo Especially the quiet ones

•  Cheaters...o Exploit explicit and implicit trusto Exploit laziness o Exploit predictabilityo Exploit limitations of human and machine senses o Use everyday objectso Look where no one else is lookingo Use uncommon skill setso Have backup plans

AcknowledgementsWe'd like to thank...      Mudge, TJ White, Eric McKissick, Mark Moss, and all the JACWC students.

 See also... Gregory Conti and James Caroland.  "Embracing the Kobayashi Maru - Why You Should Teach Your Students to Cheat."  IEEE Security and Privacy, July/August 2011.

Questions?

James CarolandU.S. Cyber Commandjlcarol@cybercom.mil Greg ContiWest Pointgjconti@rumint.org

Teach yourself, your friends and your co-workers to cheat.  

 Our adversaries already do.