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The Cyber Defense Review

 
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Providing Cyber Situational Awareness on Defense Platform Networks

By Patrick M. Hayden, David K. Woolrich, Katherine D. Sobolewski | July 31, 2018

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Modern defense platforms are at increasing risk of cyber-attack from sophisticated adversaries. These platforms do not currently provide the situational awareness necessary to identify when they are under cyberattack, nor to detect that a constituent subsystem may be in a compromised state. Long-term improvements can be made to the security posture of these platforms by iterative application of cyber risk assessments and subsystem hardening, but this is a time-consuming and costly task. Monitoring platform communication networks for malicious activity is an attractive solution for achieving improved cyber security on defense platforms in the near term. The MIL-STD-1553 bus is central to the operation of a broad range of defense platforms, making 1553 security solutions generally applicable. This article presents our research into the susceptibility of modern defense platforms to cyber-attack. We discuss risk factors contributing to cyber access, and command and control channels. We then describe a range of platform cyberattack classes, while considering the observables and indicators present on the 1553 bus. Finally, we examine factors and considerations relating to implementation of a “Cyber Warning Receiver” solution approach for detection of such attacks.

 

Providing Cyber Situational Awareness on Defense Platform Networks

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