Enhanced Access Control within a Pervasive Computing (PvC) Environment

Secure methods that permit a warfighter to access multiple community-of-interest (COI) sites over a common networking infrastructure have not been developed in a cost-effective manner. Furthermore, implementing enhanced access controls over a pervasive computing (PvC) environment is lacking. This proposal will develop a systems architecture for the United States Army (USA) that will provide enhanced access control within a Pervasive Computing (PvC) environment. As such, the architecture will incorporate design goals of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Warfighter Information Network - Tactical (WIN-T) programs. The DoD Office of Transformation indicates that modern military components will need to be smaller, lighter, more agile, and quicker to deploy. The Office wants to (1) leverage information technology to connect troops and their operations, and (2) improve and protect information networks from attacks. A critical aspect of the transformation is the use of network-centric operations to send and receive information from multiple sources to multiple recipients in a timely and secure manner. Cryptek's DiamondTEK technology combines strong authentication with VPN technology in a centrally managed fashion to meet the security requirements of the Global Information Grid (GIG) DiamondTEK can protect site-to-site communities, server to client communities, or user-to-user communities depending on how policies are constructed. DiamondTEK users may possess multiple operational profiles and these profiles can be dynamically changed at the central manager. Additionally, sites and servers protected by DiamondTEK can be added or removed from a policy profile in a dynamic fashion. Policy profiles also define a community-of-interest (COI) association. A COI policy will enumerate which sites, servers, or users are permitted to join the COI. When policy changes occur, these changes are sent to the devices rather than waiting for the user or the device to retrieve them. Cryptek will complete the primary research for developing enhanced access controls (i.e., DiamondTEK) in a PvC environment for TACOM deployment. A systems architecture document will be produced after investigating US Army telecommunications protocols and applications needed to support TACOM requirements. The document will enumerate the protocols to be used, as well as, specify the needed interfaces between DiamondTEK and IBM WECM/WEA and will be completed in 6 months. The Phase I option will then investigate how the server access control devices can be placed in a mobile computing center; increasing future situational awareness for the warfighter in the battlefield. The Phase I option will be completed in 4 months.