Research Summaries

Back SEA Cyber Network Operations Laboratory for Assured C2 Networks and Systems

Fiscal Year 2014
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Maule, Randy W.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary Two primary research objectives will be addressed: (1) Assessment of NPS student preparation for cyber operations with SEA Cyber laboratory support for virtual and simulated cyber operations; and (2) Assessment of new technologies in fleet experiments with SEA Cyber tests for information assurance in live fleet cyber operations.
(1) Student preparation for cyber operations: NPS features strong cyber academic programs. SEA Cyber laboratory and operational facilities will support students and faculty with performance tools for software, components, and processes in C2, ISR, EW and IO systems. The research process will include development of test methodologies and cyber workflows for student and faculty research. Previous SEA research and development efforts used network and software application test tools to probe and weight components to determine robustness in wired and wireless environments with constrained communications-such as might be found in A2AD or D-DIL conditions. SEA Cyber will expand SEA capabilities with security tools to examine potential vulnerabilities in emerging fleet technologies. Research will examine systems readiness to determine effectiveness in mitigating potential compromise of component, service or process. Analysis will be much deeper than conventional Host-Based Security Systems (HBSS) or conventional network-based hacker processes. Research methodology will be workflow based with cyber scenarios executed in laboratory and live fleet environments.
(2) Navy system evaluation in cyber scenarios: In the 14 years that the PI has served as an enterprise systems developer and research analyst in fleet operational at-sea experiments we have tested numerous cyber offensive and defensive technologies. The test results have been mixed, largely due to limitations of the experimentation venues and environmental constraints. Current experimentation processes are not adequate to address cyber operations. We have employed U.S. Fleet Cyber Command "red teams" to initiate probes but achieved only limited results and few lessons learned-a required [and justified] secrecy prevents effective knowledge transfer. SEA Cyber will advance specific test scenarios to address current limitations of system performance and network security in legacy, D-DIL and A2AD communication environments. Efforts will include:
- Development of research methodologies for laboratory and in-service performance and security evaluation of new fleet experimentation technologies
- Models and baselines of selected systems and operations in legacy tactical scenarios and again in expected A2AD circumstances under stress and load
- Implementation of enterprise test and evaluation software and mid-level security analysis software for system-of-systems architectures and pub/sub operations
- Validation of models and baselines in current fleet experimentation and training exercises through non-invasive probes, weighting, and analysis.
OPNAV benefits from cyber performance assessment of fleet systems in NPS laboratory and operational at-sea experiments will include:
- Objective, independent assessment of systems under stress sufficient for detailed performance capability analysis in legacy, D-DIL and A2AD environments
- NPS students versed in performance assessment techniques for enterprise software and operation of state-of-the-art performance and network security tools
- Models and simulations sufficient to understand performance characteristics of selected systems and cumulative impact in D-DIL and A2AD environments.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal