{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,21]],"date-time":"2025-02-21T19:41:31Z","timestamp":1740166891447,"version":"3.37.3"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,26]],"date-time":"2021-06-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1624665600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Systems"],"abstract":"Cyberspace is a new frontier, not just for hackers, but for engineers. It is a digital ecosystem, the next generation of Internet and network applications, promising a whole new world of distributed and open systems that can interact, self-organize, evolve, and adapt. These ecosystems transcend traditional collaborative environments, such as client-server, peer-to-peer, or hybrid models (e.g., web services), to become a self-organized, evolving, interactive environment. Understanding cyberspace as a system is critical if we are to properly design systems to exist within it. Considering it to be a digital ecosystem, where systems can adapt and evolve, will enable systems engineering to become more effective in the future of networks and the Internet. While most systems engineers have only anecdotal experience with large segments of this ecosystem, in today\u2019s world all of them must come to understand it. Engineering any system, or portion of a system, begins with an understanding of the system. This paper presents two interrelated yet distinct foundational models of the ecosystem of cyberspace: a Systemigram to narrate the cyclical nature of cyber warfare, and a modified predator\u2013prey model, as a mathematical model. Systems engineers can utilize these models to design digital \u201cspecies\u201d that function and adapt within this ecosystem.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/systems9030048","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,28]],"date-time":"2021-06-28T03:57:22Z","timestamp":1624852642000},"page":"48","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Cyberspace: A Digital Ecosystem"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5464-2186","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kari J.","family":"Lippert","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Defense USG, Ft George G. Meade, MD 20755, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2522-7888","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert","family":"Cloutier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Engineering, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Cartwright, J.E. (2021, June 25). Joint Terminolgy for Cyberspace Operations. Available online: http:\/\/www.nsci-va.org\/CyberReferenceLib\/2010-11-Joint%20Terminology%20for%20Cyberspace%20Operations.pdf."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boardman, J., and Sauser, B. (2008). Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems, Taylor and Francis.","DOI":"10.1201\/9781420054927"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kinoshita, S. (2013). Introduction to Nonequilibrium Phenomena. 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