DARPA takes multipronged approach to securing military's cloud

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

As DOD moves into cloud computing, pilots and projects look to assess risk and develop multiple layers of network defense.

Security is paramount because, in the cloud or not, the military’s networks are constantly being probed for weaknesses. In 2010 Army Gen. Keith Alexander, NSA director and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, publicly said that about 250,000 probes try to find their way into the DOD network every hour, totaling more than 6 million attempts a day http://csis.org/event/cybersecurity-discussion-general-keith-b-alexander-director-national-security-agency. A range of other numbers were floated around that time, reported Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/firewall/2010/06/04/just-how-big-is-the-cyber-threat-to-dod/ although all agreed that the number of attacks are increasing exponentially, with many being state-sponsored attacks from China.

Carey cited the intelligence community’s data security methods as a model for the DOD, although he noted that the DOD needs to have heterogeneous data security and a different network structure.

The core of the Defense Department’s plans to reduce its 1,500 data centers to “a number far below that” is implementing a secure, coherent and consistent computer cloud network architecture, said DOD principal deputy chief information officer Robert J. Carey at a recent cloud computing panel discussion.

While saving money is one reason for these changes, securing data is the most important factor.

“The access, the cost — all those facets of the efficiency of cloud computing — if it isn’t secure enough, it will not serve us well,” Carey said, according to a DOD report.

The problems with securing cloud computing are many. Today the cloud is secure for only certain types of data, Carey said. The department also faces difficulties transitioning from its legacy systems in a cost-effective manner. And how to measure cloud security is in its infancy. “At the end of the day, the metrics of cloud security are, at best, nebulous,” he said.

Then there is the structure of the cloud itself. Centralizing data, while cost-effective and a boon to data sharing, can also create a single point of failure. Shared code means a virus can spread rapidly through the system, which is difficult in siloed computer systems with different legacy coding.

DOD is addressing security on several fronts, one of which is its Mission-oriented Resilient Clouds (MRC) initiative, announced in 2011. Spearheaded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), MRC aims to develop resilient cloud services that would continue to operate and support military objectives despite being hit by a cyberattack.

DARPA has issued several grants to develop solutions, including one to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a second to Johns Hopkins University, Purdue University and the University of Virginia. MRC system design and development will run through the end of 2014, with integration and testing ending by 2015.

The program indicates a shift in the way DOD is approaching cloud security, Bryan Ward, cloud computing practice director at Serco, a military technical services provider, said in a Defense Systems report in 2011. Most traditional tools focus on the physical infrastructure. 

DARPA aims to explore several means to developing MRC, including providing redundant hosts, correlating attack information from across the ensemble, and providing for diversity across the network. In essence, it’s taking the cloud’s networking capabilities and turning it into a security tool.

Each node would monitor its own applications as well as others, MRC program manager Howard Shrobe said in an AOL Defense report.  One method is to have multiple nodes compute an answer, with any node deviating from the consensus answer considered suspect, he said.

Shrobe described the model as similar to a public health system’s immunization program, with reports of possible attacks collected and analyzed for trends and patterns such as an "epidemic" of a particular type of system failure, according to the article. At that point MRC's diagnostic and self-repair capabilities would kick in, isolating the problem to prevent multi-stage attacks and then automatically patching the vulnerability.

A second security method being studied is resource allocation to ensure maximum mission effectiveness. There may be several possible ways to achieve a mission’s goal, each requiring a unique set of resources. By developing a trust model, the DOD can measure the probability of a corruption to those resources, causing the mission to fail, Shrobe said.

MRC is intended to be a companion program to the Clean-slate design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH) effort that focuses on limiting the vulnerabilities within each host.

A third approach the DOD is using to ensure secure network systems is taking it one step at a time, with multiple pilot cloud programs.

“We’re moving at a very deliberate pace,” Carey said. “We have lots of [pilot programs] going on to evaluate these kinds of things and to make sure we understand . . . the pros, cons and risks of moving into the cloud space.”

One research and development initiative in the DOD budget request for Fiscal Year 2013 is a cloud solution to support information sharing and to bridge the performance capability gaps in the Pacific Command. A second is for using cloud services to facilitate command and control operations, reported Safegov,  a forum for IT providers and industry experts trusted and responsible cloud computing solutions for the public sector.

MRC is one of the topics that will take center stage at IDGA’s upcoming Cloud Computing Summit , being held Feb. 25-27, 2013, in Alexandria, Va.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.