In May 2021, two cyberattacks greatly threatened the food and energy supply in the United States. The first of these attacks, a ransomware assault on a major pipeline, halted the supply of gasoline and jet fuel across much of the southeastern United States. The resultant interruption caused gas prices to skyrocket and several flight delays. Just three weeks later, a similar cyberattack disrupted one of the world’s largest meat producers, limiting the U.S.’s meat production by up to 25%. Both these events demonstrate the importance of cybersecurity in life-critical systems such as food production, energy, aviation, and military operations.
The United States Armed Forces face similar threats every day. Cybersecurity has opened a new front in combat because these kinds of cyberattacks can pose an even greater hazard to operations than physical threats. Because every air, maritime and ground platform used by the United States has radar and cellular or RF communications, they can be identified or manipulated to an adversary’s advantage. They found that munitions systems were particularly susceptible to cyberattacks and have their controls affected.
To combat these kinds of cyberattacks, the U.S. Military needs a resilient cybersecurity apparatus to hacking and invasive malware. These solutions also need to be flexible and mobile to work in remote operations in every corner of the globe.
To fulfill these cybersecurity needs for the Air Force’s munitions systems, Intellisense Systems developed a mobile server system to measure and statistically quantify the munition systems’ reliability, effectiveness, and resiliency to cyberattacks. The threats that this system is designed to combat include denial-of-service attacks, disabling attacks, malware, viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. This solution was inspired by the concept of clean-room processes, the kind that focus on defect prevention and an iterative approach to improved functionality, to ensure maximum reuse from location to location and scenario to scenario.
The most significant protection that this solution provides against cyberattacks and the spread of contamination is its air-gapped nature. The current concept of operations involves the system being completely disconnected from the internet during the munitions systems testing and evaluation. This puts the system into an “airlock” computer (a form of air gapping) by using a virtual environment for malware testing. However, this strategy is sometimes not entirely foolproof because some strains of malware can still detect the presence of a virtual environment and leak out onto the host system. To address this, the Intellisense team created a detailed procedure for malware testing that was developed along with a subsequent method for checking for indications of malware contamination on the host.
Like many of Intellisense’s products, every part of this cybersecurity lab has been designed and ruggedized for dynamic environments. Every piece of the system can fit inside a single case and be arranged on a mobile cart for greater portability. The final prototype includes a graphical user interface that is readily understandable to novice cybersecurity personnel while leaving the details available for examination by more experienced operators.
After testing to SCADA and MIL-STD-1553 standards, Intellisense explored the transition to commercialization and its viability as a private commercial product. Thanks to its three-phase development with funds from the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, the system has already attracted the interest of prime contractors in aerospace and avionics systems. This solution is ideal for developers and manufacturers of advanced defense systems that need to bolster their cybersecurity, particularly those operating in remote locations.