Charles River Analytics’ GRAVITY Tool
In this article, Charles River Analytics Inc. releases details about a new cyber defense tool under their GRAVITY (Game-Theoretic Reasoning and Analysis of Vulnerability) effort for the United States Air Force. As we discussed in class, game theory has many applications in various subjects and fields; most commonly, we see game theory being used in economics, international relations, and psychology because it helps to predict and analyze the behavior of multiple players. However, in recent history, cybersecurity has been a field in which game theory is relevant and well-suited to many of its problems. For example, a typical cybersecurity game problem involves the cyber attackers (or hackers) who try to gain access to remote computers and the defenders who attempt to block them.
Game theory has also played a large role in the development of artificial intelligence, which provides Charles River Analytics and other companies tools and techniques to open new frontiers in sectors such as cybersecurity. Game environments such as the aforementioned ‘cyber attackers versus defenders’ are becoming a popular training mechanism for AI systems across the board, particularly in reinforcement learning. This is due to the fact that in a multi-participant environment, game theory is a very efficient solution to optimize the collaboration or competition of completing a task. In addition, many game scenarios in AI are symmetric, making the mathematical theory of Nash Equilibrium that we learned in class a highly applicable and powerful tool in AI. Unfortunately, the theory assumes infinite computing power, which is hardly ever the case in the real world.