Network Obfuscation and Hardening for Tactical IP Networks

ABSTRACT:In airborne black network, a pair-wise HAIPE device sets up an encrypted tunnel to transport sensitive and classified information through unsecure wireless transmission. Due to the nature of open air medium and some unprotected information in black network, wireless transmissions in airborne networks are susceptible to many malicious activities. In addition, the current fixed nature of the attack surface presented by the airborne networks provides adversaries with ample opportunity to analyze the network topology and behavior, allowing them to carefully plan attacks over time and to launch attacks. To better protect IP-based airborne networks from cyber-threats, IAI proposes to develop a Network ObfuscAtion and Hardening (NOAH) solution for tactical IP networks. The main objective of NOAH is to significantly improve cyber agility and hardening capability in airborne networks and to protect them from cyber-attacks. By leveraging state-of-art cyber agility and hardening technologies, NOAH makes it extremely difficult for the adversary to analyze the airborne networks and obtain an engagement on the target for launching a successful attackBENEFIT:A wide range of DoD and commercial systems suffer from the need for a stronger operational posture against attacks and can potentially be enhanced by the proposed work. Complex systems such as the Joint Aerial Layer Network (JALN) and Global Information Grid (GIG) must be secure, survivable, and maintain an operational posture with maximum transparency through cyber-attacks and malicious attempts. Besides tactical networks, enterprise systems require security to allow sensitive financial, industrial, and personal information to be transmitted across computer networks. Countless time and money is spent as system administrators constantly work to stay ahead of potential attackers, effort which the proposed approach will help obfuscate tactical networks and defend against cyber-attacks. The key capability of NOAH is its ability to provide high level of cyber hardening and agility to a network and prevent traffic analysis needed for targeting of attacks and launch of sophisticated attacks. Based on the market study of cyber security solution, potential revenue for NOAH is estimated to be more than $50M during the first 10 years of commercialization. IAI also plans to explore licensing opportunities with prime contractors and systems integrators for custom integration to address the needs of specific government and commercial clients