Persistent Avionics Threat Chain Hardening Technology

To address the Navy’s need for cyber protection of physical avionics inputs, Intellisense Systems, Inc. proposes to develop a new Persistent Avionics Threat Chain Hardening (PATCH) process and software solution based on a unique combination of traditional data analytics and artificial intelligence and intuition technology. Specifically, the innovation in sandboxed quantitative data integrity analytics coupled with qualitative artificial intuition-based tampering/corruption anomaly detection enables the integrity of the data maintained through all the threat surfaces, thereby detecting and preventing propagation of corrupted data from reaching the aircraft. As a result, this innovative leap ensures data integrity is maintained through the entire data chain and fully covers all threat surfaces by allowing data manipulation to be identified and flagged at all stages—unlike cyclic redundancy checks or hash codes, which can be spoofed. PATCH will be validated through white hat analysis and ethical hacking events while ensuring human factors for the operator and potential impacts to the pilot are evaluated. In Phase I, Intellisense will demonstrate the feasibility of the PATCH technology by performing white hat analysis of the Navy’s physical avionics data inputs, listing all the threat surfaces of the affected aircraft and developing mitigation strategies for residual risk and non-deterministic gaps identified by the analysis. In the Phase I Option, if awarded, Intellisense will develop a threat brief deployable to each platform, along with a business case analysis detailing the near-term and total lifecycle implications of adopting the technology in the platform’s workflow. In Phase II, Intellisense plans to develop and demonstrate prototype PATCH solutions for two platforms with the largest threat surface. Approaches for formal design, implementation, and qualification of the PATCH solution for deployment within the platform’s data chain will be determined and executed in accordance with the requirements of where the technology will be implemented.