Description:
The intent of this article is to describe—and prescribe—a scientific framework for assuring mission essential functions in a contested cyber environment. Such a framework has profound national security implications as the American military increasingly depends on cyberspace to execute critical mission sets. In setting forth this prescribed course of action, the article will first decompose information systems into atomic processes that manipulate information at all six phases of the information lifecycle, then systematically define the mathematical rules that govern mission assurance.