Secure Virtual Environment for Cyber Resiliency Validation

Department of Defense (DoD) cybersecurity test and evaluation (T&E) uses a variety of cyber event environments throughout the development of a combat system to support fielding more secure, resilient systems in a cost-effective manner. Cyber test environments are used to deploy cyber-attacks and achieve high fidelity feedback on vulnerabilities present in the system without putting operational systems at risk. Cyber test environments support more rigorous and repeatable experimentation because they can be fully controlled, unlike operational environments. Historically, cyber test capabilities have been limited due to the cost of scaling a high-fidelity simulation. Introducing virtualization to the cyber test platform minimizes these limitations and improves support for real-world scenarios. The object of this research is to provide a dedicated secure virtual environment (SVE), called the Cyber Resiliency Validation Environment (CRVE), which is hardened to cyber effects such that the host systems they operate on will not be vulnerable to cyber-attack/effects. The creation of an SVE for cybersecurity T&E allows for more experimentation in exploring future vulnerabilities and exploitations with limited risk to underlying host machine resources. The SVE must be reconfigurable to be able to emulate the desired configurations of missile defense systems and have scalability for future missile defense advancements. Approved for Public Release |21-MDA-10789 (21 Apr 21)