Secure Virtual Environment for Cyber Resiliency Validation

Department of Defense (DoD) cybersecurity test and evaluation (T&E) uses various cyber event environments throughout the development of a combat system to support fielding more secure, resilient, and cost-effective systems. Cyber ranges deploy cyber-attacks and achieve high-fidelity feedback on vulnerabilities present in the system without putting operational systems at risk; they support more rigorous and repeatable experimentation by being fully controlled, unlike operational environments. Virtualization in cyber ranges minimizes the limitation introduced by the cost of high-fidelity simulations, which 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. This allows for more experimentation in exploring future vulnerabilities and exploitations with limited risk to underlying host machine resources. It must be reconfigurable to emulate desired configurations of missile defense systems and scale for future missile defense advancements. Research, development, and implementation of an SVE will be performed to validate that MDA cyber test activities can be executed safely and successfully on virtualized systems, producing high-fidelity results and complying with DoD cybersecurity policy and guidance. Approved for Public Release | 20-MDA-10398 (2 Mar 20)