Advanced Multi Domain Assurance for Air Force Networks

Air Force weapon systems are heavily reliant on complex software and high interconnectivity to perform their missions. Cyber capabilities enable many advanced features (e.g., electronic attack, sensor fusion, and communications) that give the Air Force an edge over potential adversaries. But they also create potential opportunities for adversaries to counter U.S. advantages through cyberattacks. A sophisticated adversary may seek to discover and exploit vulnerabilities in a systems software, supporting systems, or supply chain in order to gain intelligence or to sabotage operations. This is also a critical problem with legacy systems, which make up the majority of Air Force inventory. One class of hardware, data diodes, can get information out of a system and to its destination without any fear of a compromised network connection. Data diodes are security appliances that enable a physically-enforced, one-way information stream about the state of equipment assets. These devices use light as the medium to transmit data from one side to the other, physically isolating the equipment from lower-security networks. Data diodes are used today to protect the most critical of assets, like nuclear power plants, but at an expense often exceeding $100,000 per connection. On-site diode configuration adds to the cost and complexity of this technology, which is more at home in server rooms than mobile platforms. Fend physically protects connected equipment from cyberattack while providing real-time situational awareness. The need for unidirectional communications arises from attackers’ ability to stay one step ahead of traditional cyber defenses like firewalls and software-based security. However, the patches and updates to these systems are always preparing for yesterday’s war, leaving equipment managers vulnerable to today’s threats. These attackers use rentable botnets, unlimited cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to find and exploit any flaw in software or network configurations. Some malicious code is going to get through these defenses. To enable widespread deployment across DAF assets, Fend will enhance its technological capabilities including speed, form factor, and expanded protocol support.