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Modelling & Simulation for Cyber Warfare

In cyber warfare, the network is the battlefield. While all networks are vulnerable to attack, mobile wireless networks are the most unprotected because their strengths - agility, adaptability, node autonomy and self-organisation - also make them harder to defend against radio frequency (RF) distortion and malicious packet-level disruption and intrusion.

Up to now, wireless has been the most neglected network security domain in terms of spending, in both military and enterprise spaces. Yet wireless networks, especially mobile networks, are the most critical component of tactical communication infra- structure and the most challenging to defend against cyberattacks.

Building High-Tech Armor for Network-Centric Warfare

SNT's breakthrough wireless network development technology enables rapid development of threat prevention and interrupt/disrupt defense capabilities.

As the breakneck pace of wireless networking deployment extends into the national defense and security frontier, a breakthrough technology is enabling network engineers and military operations planners to evaluate new components and deployment strategies to make net-centric operations more predictable and secure against external threats.

"Software virtual networks" (SVNs) dramatically reduce the cost and cycle time for evaluating new wireless network technologies - orders of magnitude below what has been possible until now.

Challenges in Upgrading Existing Communications Networks

Existing tactical communications networks, such as the Tactical Data Information Link (TADIL) J in use today by the U.S. armed services and the National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the NATO Link 16 system, lack the modern capability to route specific data packets to specific addresses. TADIL J only supports broadcasting, making it susceptible to malicious network-centric threats such as jamming and eavesdropping.

In the emerging Global Information Grid (GIG), packet-based, routable wireless networks based on the 802.11e standard enable new capabilities to integrate voice, data, and video information in real time on the battlefield. The vision of GIG as a seamless, secure, and interconnected information environment is supported by the NSA's Information Assurance (IA) security services specifications. IA augments commercial wireless technologies to meet Department of Defense mission-critical requirements.

The advantages of adding IA to a proven commercial technology such as 802.11e instead of a less open, narrowly deployed technology like Link 16 are lower cost and faster deployment. Since commercial technologies are built on open standards, effective IA requires continuous assessment of encryption strength and susceptibility to malicious threats, attacks, and penetrations such as passive eavesdropping, denial-of-service, jamming, wormholes, and rushing attacks. It also requires detailed understanding of security in every layer of the wireless protocol stack: physical, media access control, network routing, transport/transmission, and applications.

The ongoing security challenge can be studied quite well with high fidelity simulation technology, such as QualNet, as well as emulation software such as EXata. QualNet and EXata get engineers to the answers faster by allowing them to test and evaluate emulated network components and systems in SVNs instead of costly and time-consuming physical testbeds built with prototype components and technologies.

Read the EXata/Cyber Datasheet: http://www.scalable-networks.com/solutions/cyber-warfare

White Paper on Cyber Warfare

A paper titled Introducing a Cyber Warfare Communications Effect Model to Synthetic Environments will be featured at I/ITSEC 2010 taking place November 29 - December 2, 2010 in Orlando, Florida.

Access to the Cyber Warfare white paper here.