Improving Threat Mitigation Through a Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework: A Computational Design Science Approach

Benjamin M. Ampel, Sagar Samtani, Hongyi Zhu, Hsinchun Chen, Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.
Last updated on Oct 24, 2026
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Research design diagram: data collection from hacker forums, public exploit repositories and an exploit dark-net market; dataset construction and pre-processing; the ATT&CK-Link architecture, in which RoBERTa and CodeBERT teacher models distill into a student model with long short-range attention that outputs tactic probabilities; and three evaluation experiments. ATT&CK-Link Research Design
In Plain Terms

The authors built a tool called ATT&CK-Link that automatically connects threats discussed in underground hacker forums to MITRE ATT&CK, a widely used catalog of attacker tactics. By folding in data drawn directly from hackers, the system gives security teams earlier, more actionable warnings about emerging threats. The paper shows how an organization such as a hospital could use it to defend its systems before an attack lands.

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APA Ampel, B. M., Samtani, S., Zhu, H., Chen, H., & Nunamaker, J. F., Jr. (2024). Improving Threat Mitigation Through a Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework: A Computational Design Science Approach. Journal of Management Information Systems, 41(1), 236–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2023.2301178
BibTeX
@article{ampel2024improving,
  title={Improving Threat Mitigation Through a Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework: A Computational Design Science Approach},
  author={Benjamin M. Ampel and Sagar Samtani and Hongyi Zhu and Hsinchun Chen and Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.},
  journal={Journal of Management Information Systems},
  year={2024},
  doi={10.1080/07421222.2023.2301178}
}
Hacker Forums Cyber Threat Intelligence Computational Design Science Deep Learning Risk Management Frameworks
Benjamin M. Ampel

Benjamin M. Ampel

Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems and Director, Center for CyberAI Research (CCAIR)

My research focuses on AI-enabled Cybersecurity, including Cyber Threat Intelligence, Large Language Models, and Phishing Detection.