The Design and Application of a Unified Ontology for Cyber Security

Published

December 9, 2023

Author(s)

Ashrafi Akbar, Fariha Rahman, Anoop Singhal, Latifur Khan, Bhavani Thuriasingham

Abstract

Ontology enables semantic interoperability, making it highly valuable for cyber threat hunting. Community-driven frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, D3FEND, ENGAGE, CWE and CVE have been developed to combat cyber threats. However, manually navigating these independent data sources is time-consuming and impractical in highstakes situations. By adopting an ontology-based approach, these cybersecurity resources can be unified, enabling a holistic view of the threat landscape. Additionally, leveraging semantic query languages empowers analysts to make the most of existing data sources. This paper explores how through the application of a semantic query language (SPARQL) on a unified cybersecurity ontology, analysts can effectively exploit the information contained within these resources to strengthen their defense strategies against cyber threats.

Proceedings Title

ICISS 2023: Information Systems Security

Volume

14424

Conference Dates

December 16-20, 2023

Conference Location

Raipur, IN

Conference Title

19th International Conference on Information and Systems Security ICISS 2023

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49099-6_2

Local Download

Keywords

Ontology, OWL, SPARQL, cybersecurity

Citation

Akbar, A. , Rahman, F. , Singhal, A. , Khan, L. and Thuriasingham, B. (2023), The Design and Application of a Unified Ontology for Cyber Security, ICISS 2023: Information Systems Security, Raipur, IN, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49099-6_2, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956387 (Accessed October 1, 2025)