Resilient and secure networking for complex systems F191-005-1632

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a key component of cybersecurity, adding a deeper layer of defense to common commercial firewall solutions that primarily protect the network perimeter. Operant will provide the USAF with a novel, ultra-secure IDS, delivering deep situational awareness to a broad audience via a Common Operating Picture view. Focused on delivering actionable information to base personnel, the IDS will display information in physical base map, network topology, and mission functionality views. Existing commercial IDS exist, but their efficacy is increasingly challenged by the swift advent of encrypted network traffic, which now prevents message contents from inspection. Operant’s IDS instead utilizes network traffic flow information to detect anomalous and suspicious behaviors; a technique which will become required as encrypted messages becomes universal. In addition to being future proof, Operant’s next generation Named Data Networking (NDN) platform protects the IDS itself from malicious actors. Operating in a stealth network overlay mode, our IDS nodes communicate both with each other and end users via the highly secure NDN protocol, providing secure and resilient visibility deep into the base IT network, even under disruption due to cyber or physical attack.