Sponsored by Spectra Group
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22 Feb 19. Hoverfly Joins Persistent System’s Wave Relay Ecosystem. Persistent Systems, LLC announced that it has entered into a five-year agreement with Hoverfly Technologies Inc.. Hoverfly will be joining the Wave Relay Ecosystem, an alliance of unmanned system and sensor companies that integrate the Wave Relay mobile ad hoc network (MANET) into their products. Hoverfly’s tether-powered, small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), LiveSky and the BigSky, will both be part of the Ecosystem, with the Wave Relay MANET offered as the standard communication link.
“We are proud to continue to grow the Ecosystem and incorporate new systems that help further the effort towards a networked battlefield,” said Brian Soles, Director of Business Development for Persistent Systems. “The Wave Relay MANET can scale and operate effectively in urban environments where the LiveSky and BigSky excel.”
By incorporating Persistent’s MANET radios on their sUAS, Hoverfly improves their offerings operational capabilities in dense urban environments. The tethered capability of the LiveSky and BigSky allow them to reach above tall buildings to spread the network farther. Greater networking capabilities provide the warfighter with real-time situational awareness for quick, in-the-moment tactical decisions.
“As the Army is working towards networking the battlefield, the addition of the Wave Relay MANET to our tethered drones enhances capabilities for communications, ISR, rogue reconnaissance, and security,” said Rob Topping, CEO of Hoverfly. “This integration provides a much-needed communication link that enables a wholly networked solution.”
The Hoverfly systems operate at altitudes of 200 feet above the ground, where a tether cable provides continuous power and high speed ethernet connectivity. With the Embedded Module now integrated into Hoverfly’s offerings, users benefit from the range and performance that the MANET can deliver in this unobstructed, advantaged location for miles of connectivity.
“This partnership represents a significant new addition to the Ecosystem. Providing an advantaged communication relay extends the range and performance of all the Wave Relay Ecosystem offerings. Now unmanned ground robots can operate further in complex urban environments, and sensor data can be retrieved at greater distances. The Hoverfly integration of the Wave Relay MANET is a true capability multiplier on the networked battlefield,” added Brian Soles. (Source: UAS VISION)
21 Feb 19. Trustwave and NikSoft Join Forces to Strengthen U.S. Government Cybersecurity Initiatives Through HACS SINs Support. Alliance Delivers Advanced Threat Hunting, Incident Response, Penetration Testing and Risk Assessment to the Government Sector to Address Growing Concern over Evolving Cyber Threats. Trustwave today announced a strategic alliance with NikSoft Systems Corporation (NikSoft) for delivering advanced cybersecurity capabilities and support to federal, state and local governments.
NikSoft will leverage Trustwave for its wide-range of cybersecurity solutions and deep portfolio of Trustwave Managed Security Services for monitoring, detecting and eradicating sophisticated cybercriminal and nation-state threats. These solutions and services are supported by Trustwave SpiderLabs, an elite team of ethical hackers, digital forensic investigators and threat hunters who are at the forefront of rapidly evolving adversary tactics for evading detection and moving silently across networks. Trustwave security, consulting and technology implementation expertise adds to NikSoft’s large-scale project management and engineering capacity to serve a broad range of government agency environments.
Through the alliance, both companies have been awarded by General Services Administration (GSA) all four categories of Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) Special Item Numbers (SINs) under GSA Schedule 70 for providing government agencies swift access to critical support services from evaluated product and solution providers.
All cybersecurity services as defined by HACS SINs are offered through the Trustwave and NikSoft alliance, including:
- 132-45A Penetration Testing — Trustwave Security Testing offers a viable path for pre-empting a cyberattack or breach by uncovering vulnerabilities, unpatched systems, misconfigurations, improper user rights and other weaknesses across databases, networks and applications. The pentesting team helps organizations drastically reduce risk by remediating issues before they escalate into catastrophic events.
- 132-45B Incident Response — Trustwave Digital Forensics and Incident Response delivers continuous monitoring, threat detection and the ability to launch deep investigations anywhere in the world in minutes and help immediately eradicate threats down to individual endpoints. In addition, the service offers thorough assessments to determine organization risk levels and current ability to respond to threats for creating custom incident response playbooks based on specific organization requirements.
- 132-45C Cyber Hunt — Trustwave advanced threat hunting services use behavioral analytics, malware fingerprinting and proprietary threat intelligence to proactively seek out indicators of compromise, obfuscated malware and advanced persistent threats moving undetected and working to overtake environments. Led by Trustwave SpiderLabs who think and operate like the adversary, a threat hunt can greatly reduce dwell time of a breach to limit the extent of damages.
- 132-45D Risk and Vulnerability Assessment — Trustwave Cybersecurity and Risk Services delivered by a team of experienced consultants, works alongside an organization’s internal security team to define proper risk tolerance, map and close security gaps, and establish best practices towards improved security transformation taking into account all workers, third-party partners and compliance requirements.
- High Value Assets (HVA) Assessments — Trustwave Data Protection Practice provides Security Architecture Review (SAR) and Systems Security Engineering (SSE) that defines this new sub-category of HACS SINs. Trustwave helps identify and keep highly sensitive government data safe across its entire life cycle by combining consulting, systems integration and managed security services.
“Government agencies are under constant assault from nation-state and other sophisticated threat actors probing for security weaknesses, penetrating environments and moving freely, undetected, for malicious purpose,” said Bill Rucker, president, Trustwave Government Solutions. “Our alliance with NikSoft helps ensure agencies have immediate access to the high-level security expertise and technologies needed to thoroughly assess risk, harden security posture where needed and terminate attacks as they occur, critical elements that define modern security programs.”
“Trustwave is a great addition to our security offerings,” stated Manish Gupta, president at NikSoft. “Through their expertise and large team of researchers, they bring an unmatched level of threat intelligence necessary for countering even the most elusive adversary. Together we are delivering solutions needed in the public sector for safeguarding critical infrastructure, services and programs the population relies on.”
21 Feb 19. Cybersecurity Spending will get two $11bn growth spikes to reach $223.7bn by 2024, says Rethink. Cyber security revenues in 2018 were $160.2bn and will jump an enormous $11.2bn during 2019, as the focus moves to GDPR adherence and adherence to similar legislation. Growth slows to around $9.8bn per annum after this but then spikes once again in 2023/4 as AI based Cybersecurity escalates, reaching $223.7bn. This means cybersecurity spending will rise faster than total IT budgets over the next five years. The European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Registrar) has set the agenda for legislation over data privacy and protection worldwide and that is generating a spike in spending on security measures that ensure compliance. This will continue to ripple around the world between 2019 and 2021. Later in our forecast period an arms race will develop around AI and machine learning as major cybercriminal gangs and rogue nation states adopt these to launch increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, pushing spending on countermeasures.
These predictions are made in Riot’s new report “Privacy and state espionage tightens focus on security – Cybersecurity spending forecast to 2024” released today. This is a global forecast by geography and industry vertical, which also highlights differences in cybersecurity strategy and spending between major regions and sub-sectors.
North America is expected to continue to spend the most on security (27%), but both Europe (22%) and China (20%) which are rapidly accelerating their spend, with the rest of Asia following closely behind on 16%. North America is expected to lead on almost every market with the exceptions of Industrial and Automotive, where China leads, but only by a tiny margin.
Because the US has been driving the eHealth revolution, it has invested sooner than other countries in associated security and that shows up clearly in the 2018 regional breakdown. That gap will remain over the forecast period but narrow as other regions catch up over eHealth.
By contrast in automotive China is emerging as a big spender on cybersecurity, driven by huge investment coupled by a strategy of focusing on safety in autonomous driving, contrasting with the country’s cavalier approach to consumer privacy. Automotive also stands out for having by far the fastest growth in spending on cybersecurity among the vertical sectors covered in the report.
The Riot report describes how cybersecurity threats will evolve over the next five years as monitoring and surveillance based on machine learning algorithms and other AI techniques become widely deployed. But this will have the affect of increasing rather than reducing demand for skilled cybersecurity personnel, because the developing arms race will require experts in what will effectively be a new form of war game.
Cybercriminals will not only attempt to cover their tracks to evade detection by surveillance systems, but will also attack these defenses directly, as is already happening to forensic watermarking systems in TV services.
21 Feb 19. North Sydney cyber centre to boost Australia’s cyber security defences. NTT Security has officially launched its rebuilt Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Australia to assess and mitigate global cyber security threats and help clients strengthen Australia’s cyber security posture and resilience. The centre, located in North Sydney, is managed and operated by NTT Security for the delivery of NTT Group companies’ Managed Security Services to clients located in Australia and beyond, serving the growing demand for security and risk management expertise. It is part of a network of 10 dedicated NTT Security SOCs around the world.
NTT Security’s global CIO and regional CEO for APAC, Martin Schlatter, welcomed the reopening of the SOC, saying, “Cyber security risks are less predictable than before, and attackers are developing more sophisticated ways of breaching defenses. The role of the SOC has evolved from a stand-alone security monitoring and alerting environment to one that is much more proactive in hunting for threats and more integrated with each client’s environment – not just the technology – but also at an operational and business level.”
The SOC consists of a highly secure advanced threat monitoring and incident response centre. It is powered by a single global managed security services platform, with security best practice and knowledge shared across all SOCs instantaneously. It also features market-leading threat detection capabilities, including machine learning, big data and complex event processing analysis. (Source: Defence Connect)
19 Feb 19. Lockheed Martin reorganizes around integrated cyber, electronic warfare and intelligence. In an example of how industry can mirror the military and vice versa, Lockheed Martin has created a new internal business it’s calling spectrum convergence. Each of the military services, in one way or another, are discussing the need for integrated capabilities that can provide cyber consequences, electronic warfare effects and signals intelligence as the lines between the three disciplines blur. Many of these capabilities, while similar, had been organized under separate offices. Now, those barriers are falling.
“This was a recognition that we needed to make a significant shift in the organization structure to be able to be that much more responsive” to customers, Deon Viergutz, vice president of spectrum convergence at Lockheed, told C4ISRNET during an interview at West 2019.
Viergutz said the reorganization became official at the end of 2018. Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the United States.
Lockheed Martin leaders had been hearing about this convergence from the services.
Programs that span multiple domains fall squarely within his portfolio, Viergutz said.. This extends to the intelligence realm to include programs such as the Distributed Common Ground System.
“As we think about some of the DCGS systems as an example across the services, how do we shrink that [observe, orient, decide and act] loop, that decision loop … how do we fuse that intelligence coming together,” he said. “I don’t think it can be looked at independently any longer. You have to look at it much more integrated so that it can’t be an afterthought.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/C4ISR & Networks)
19 Feb 19. New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract. The massive and troubled $10bn cloud contract the Pentagon has been pursuing has run into another snag. DoD revealed Tuesday it has obtained “new information” pointing to potential of conflicts of interest in the competition, already widely criticized for favoring Amazon Web Services.
Pentagon spokesperson Elissa Smith confirmed to Breaking Defense that “new information not previously provided to DOD has emerged related to potential conflicts of interest,” and as a result of this new information, “DOD is continuing to investigate these potential conflicts.”
Last year, both Oracle and IBM filed pre-award protests against the JEDI Cloud solicitation, but the Government Accountability Office rejected both protests in November and December respectively.
Oracle then filed suit in federal court alleging the Pentagon’s plan to award to contract to a single vendor award is illegal. In rejecting the company’s earlier complaint, the GAO argued the Pentagon’s “decision to pursue a single-award approach to obtain these cloud services is consistent with applicable statutes (and regulations) because the agency reasonably determined that a single-award approach is in the government’s best interests for various reasons, including national security concerns, as the statute allows.”
The Defense Department’s own cloud strategy repeatedly says the Pentagon lacks the expertise to set up large scale cloud services and needs to rely on a single private sector partner, at least “initially”: “The Department has never built or implemented an enterprise cloud solution and therefore, recognizes the importance of finding a commercial partner to help begin the process…..The magnitude of effort required to stand up a General Purpose cloud at the scale and complexity of the Department is initially best served through a single provider that will allow DoD to maximize pace and minimize risk.”
But not everyone’s convinced. Late last year, two members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee called on the Pentagon’s Inspector General to investigate the $10bn Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure — or JEDI — cloud contract. The lawmakers, Tom Cole and Steve Womack, sent a letter to the DoD charging the government’s requirements for the program “seem to be tailored to one specific contractor,” namely, Amazon Web Services.
While Amazon wasn’t mentioned in the letter, the company has long been considered the front-runner for the long-term contract after Alphabet’s Google took itself out of the running.
The lawsuit by Oracle in the Court of Federal Claims charges DoD’s Cloud Executive Steering Group was committed to the single-vendor approach from the very beginning. Then-Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan signed a memo standing up the group in September 2017.
Oracle has also charged that former DoD employee, Deap Ubhi, a Defense Digital Service member had a “personal and substantial” role at the outset of JEDI planning. Ubhi was employed by Amazon Web Services before working in the Pentagon and has since returned to the corporate fold after leaving the Pentagon: Allowing top private sector talent to help the military for a brief tour, without sacrificing their civilian careers, is the entire point of the Defense Digital Service, but it certainly complicates DoD’s traditionally rigid separation of government officials from contractors. It is unclear if the Pentagon’s new findings deal with Ubhi or other officials. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Breaking Defense)
19 Feb 19. The US Navy plans to test its new electronic warfare drones this fall. Complex electronic warfare (EW) platforms – such as the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler – could soon release swarms of drones from the aircraft, allowing the smaller vehicles to fly ahead to scout out for radar and other battlefield emitters, and potentially even take part in electronic attack missions themselves by jamming enemy sensor networks. The concept is part of a project the U.S. Navy is working on with Northrop Grumman known as Remedy.
As part of the program, a small Class II unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – developed by North Carolina-based VX Aerospace – would be packed into a cluster munition canister that would then eject from a “mothership” and fly a programmed route ahead of stand-off jammers and strike aircraft.
The small drones – outfitted with various payloads including electronic support measures (ESM) or electronic attack jammers – would integrate a datalink to send information back to manned aircraft for either immediate tactical use or intelligence planning for later missions. The small UAVs, which are difficult to detect, owing to their size and slow speed, would get “up close and personal” to radar systems allowing them to perform novel jamming techniques, and even infiltrate command networks to perform cyberattacks.
“It gives me more ‘attack surfaces’ to get at the enemy radar,” said John Thompson, Northrop Grumman’s director of business development for airborne C4ISR. “And because I’m so close, I can now hear more details or hear signals that previously vehicles that were further away couldn’t receive simply because of the physics.”
Since first unveiling the technology in 2017, Remedy has matured “substantially”, company leaders said. The UAV, known as the Dash X, has flown trials in which operators onboard a Northrop Grumman test aircraft controlled the drone to hunt and locate electronic targets. This fall, Northrop Grumman plans to take this concept further by linking the drone with an actual U.S. Navy Growler as part of Fleet Tactical Grid (FTG) 2019, organized by Navy Warfare Development Command.
“This is the first time it has been done with a gray airframe, an actual EA-18G Growler,” said Thompson
Thompson noted that the trials this fall will demonstrate the tactical utility of sending forward a drone and will likely support a future decision by the Navy to embed software into the Growler that enables manned-unmanned teaming. This teaming concept has flourished in recent years because of the benefits it promises to deliver for deployed forces, not the least of which is increased survivability for manned platforms in contested areas.
Northrop Grumman has already worked with the Navy on a project to “mesh together” Growlers into a common data environment. This is now expanding to include other air vehicles – including unmanned aircraft – in order to “see the [electronic support measures] environment as a team” using common data standards.
However, the trials will not include launching the drone launched from the Growler. Instead it will take off and land from the ground as normal. VX Aerospace continues to develop the canister ejection system – utilizing a Tactical Munitions Dispenser nicknamed the “hotel” by the company – which has to ensure the small UAV can survive the extreme temperatures and maneuvers before, during and after release.
Flight clearance for the modified dispenser and subsequent release trials are the next stage of the roadmap after proving out the software integration. When this will occur is still not known.
Thompson said the company is currently seeing the most interest in equipping the Super Hornet and Growler tactical fleet aboard Navy carriers, enabling a forward-deployed loitering capability ahead of strike packages. It is expected that the dispensing aircraft for the EW drone could be the Super Hornet, replicating how the two aircraft types perform kinetic operations together against enemy radars with high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles.
“An anti-radiation missile is an unmanned ESM device that is moving into the environment, 50 to 100 miles in front of the battle force,” explained Thompson. “We give those missiles data and those weapons communicate back to the airframes as well. This is now just a different idea, instead of it being a high-speed HARM, in this case Remedy is a low-speed loitering ISR weapon that’s in the space.”
In the future, these small UAVs could be released from other airborne assets such as the P-8 Poseidon or helicopters to monitor the electronic battlespace for missions such as anti-submarine warfare or wider surface fleet protection to decoy incoming missile threats. Northrop Grumman is also exploring future concepts that would see Remedy swarms used by land forces for EW roles such as disrupting enemy C2 networks. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
19 Feb 19. Cyber Command’s 2019 plan for new tools. U.S. Cyber Command plans to spend as much as $75m in fiscal 2019 to help provide the tools and capabilities the Department of Defense’s cyberwarriors need and to help separate those systems from the equipment the organization has long borrowed from the intelligence community.
That figure is 70 percent higher than what the organization spent in fiscal 2018, but after many years of building cyber teams, Cyber Command is now focusing on the readiness of its cyber forces and ensuring that those workers have the proper equipment.
Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 14 that the command executed 32 contract actions totaling $43 m in fiscal 2018 and could reach as much as $75 m in this fiscal year.
Congress granted Cyber Command limited acquisition authority in 2016 following the model of Special Operations Command and capped acquisition funds at $75m per year. That agreement sunsets in 2021, though officials have said they are working with Congress to secure a ceiling of $250m and a sunset in 2025.
One critical aspect of that spending will come from Cyber Command’s development of its own tools and architectures separate from the National Security Agency. As part of a temporary arrangement to help get Cyber Command on its feet, the organization has long borrowed equipment from the NSA. (Source: Fifth Domain)
16 Feb 19. How to fix the gaps in weapons system cybersecurity. The modern U.S. military is the most effective fighting and peace-keeping force ever to form on Earth. Multiple factors make that true, but perhaps one of the most important is the cutting-edge technology the United States employs as a force multiplier. The ability to detect threats, move information and understand the battlefield that technology grants is critical to the modern war fighter.
However, the same technological prowess that is one of our biggest assets is also growing into one of our biggest liabilities.
In October, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that many of the current and in-development weapon systems do an insufficient job defending against cyberattacks. The report noted that the increasingly computerized and networked nature of Department of Defense weapons systems, along with their greater dependency on software and IT, has opened new threat vectors for adversaries to attack and disrupt DoD operations.
Take, for example, a weapon system designed to use radar and tracking technologies, combined with computer systems, to identify and destroy enemy targets. This requires a highly complex, integrated system of radar arrays, target identification, threat tracking and networking that all must function seamlessly in real-time to execute a long and complex kill chain.
Unfortunately, any disruption to this kill chain (or any other similarly complex systems) … kills the chain.
Shooting in the dark
The GAO report also cited visibility and detection capabilities (or lack thereof) as one of the greatest difficulties. After all, you can neither protect assets nor defeat threats you cannot see. This is a major challenge indeed, but also an opportunity.
That’s because cyber activity almost always leaves traces in log files — odd network traffic, unusual data being accessed, or weird log-in patterns. That’s why reviewing system log data for unusual occurrences is one of the most common ways to detect adversarial cyber activity.
But, sifting through log data is one of those “easier said than done” jobs, especially when lacking the right tools and when faced with no common data language. That’s the case with today’s weapon systems. Indeed, the GAO report found that across multiple tests conducted by cyber red teams, suspicious activity was recorded in system logs. However, those logs were never reviewed by operators. Worse, in some cases, operators alerted by warning systems intentionally ignored them due to alert fatigue because warning statuses were “always red.”
The challenge the DoD faces is not a lack of data — that would be harder to address — but a lack of the ability to read and understand the data it collects.
It’s all in the data
It goes without saying that weapon system cybersecurity is a challenge and one that must be addressed if the United States is to maintain its mission readiness and confidence in its weapon systems. Hopefully, future weapon system designs will incorporate cybersecurity as key performance indicators. But for those already deployed, improving visibility, the accuracy of alerts and the ability to automate responses to them would significantly benefit the DoD.
Sadly, data is messy. It often presents itself in unstructured and disparate streams. This makes it hard to understand and spot important information without the right tools. However, the DoD need not start from scratch.
Though weapon systems are inherently unique in design and have complex data structures, they are not fundamentally different from the complex networks and technologies operating time-sensitive, high-impact and high-security operations, such as financial institutions. Both weapons systems and financial systems rely heavily synchronicity between multiple networks and technology nodes to execute a successful chain of events. In other words, both rely on data and the successes of financial institutions can offer insight into the tools needed to proceed.
What does that mean? It means DoD does not need to rebuild any of their existing systems. Nor does DoD need to spend billions of dollars to conduct rip-and-replace operations to harden them against cyberattack.
The challenges the GAO identified are not new problems. DoD should look to the current slate of security information and event management (SIEM) tools, which easily layer on top of existing information systems to ingest data then use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify threat indicators in real-time. The most advanced SIEM tools will even allow the DoD to automate incident responses.
In fact, financial institutions like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)are already using data to gain visibility into their networks, detect odd behaviors and set up smarter alerting/remediation practices to safeguard the investors, traders and companies that rely on the organization. So, too, is the NASDAQ.
A future without fighting is still dangerous
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sun Zhu likely wasn’t referring to adversarial cyber operations some 2,500 years ago, but in the 21st century, his words take on new meaning. In an age dominated by extraordinary reliance on technology, cyberwarfare holds the potential for disabling or subduing an enemy without ever firing a shot.
Strengthening the cybersecurity of our weapons systems should be an ongoing priority for DoD. It won’t happen overnight, but Department of Defense leaders should rest assured solutions exist that make it possible. The data is there; the tools exist. (Source: Fifth Domain)
19 Feb 19. Intellexa offers its field intelligence portfolio mounted on a variety of platforms – a premium covert mission vehicle, portable backpacks, and an airborne (drone / helicopter) installation. – The Alliance’s countrywide intelligence solutions include remote collection, high capacity IP traffic monitoring and interception, as well as robust data fusion and predictive analytics.
“Partnering to create a wide, integrative offering is a key element in our effort to maximize the value we provide to our customers”, said Olivier Bohbot, CEO of Nexa Technologies. “The Intelligence Alliance will continue to enhance its offering by including additional partners with best-of-breed complementary products. For us, openness and collaboration are key”, he added.
“Our immediate goal is to become a one-stop-shop for all of our customers’ field intelligence collection needs”, said Tal Dilian, CEO of WiSpear. “Field intelligence teams must be prepared to overcome any challenge they face. They need to be able to access hard-to-reach areas and successfully intercept any device. To make sure they succeed in doing so, they need a versatile platform – portable, vehicle mounted or airborne – with a comprehensive set of capabilities to choose from, depending on the specific operational scenario they face. Intellexa was established to enable just that”.
The Intelligence Alliance worldwide presence includes offices in Paris France, Limassol Cyprus, Tel Aviv Israel, Jakarta Indonesia and Dubai UAE, as well as R&D centers in Macedonia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Hungary. Intellexa will unveil its comprehensive offering at the IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi, February 17-21 and at ISS Middle East in Dubai, March 11-13.
10 Feb 19. Airbus and SKY Perfect JSAT. Node How to Communicate on the SpaceDataHighway System. The SpaceDataHighway sounds intriguing, and it is, as it is the world’s first ‘optical fiber’ network in the sky based on cutting-edge laser technology that involves a unique system of geostationary satellites permanently fixed over a network of ground stations, with the first – EDRS-A – already in space. Together in an agreement between Airbus and Japanese telecommunications satellite operator SKY Perfect JSAT the two will be working on design preparation of the EDRS-D node. Each day, it can relay up to 40 terabytes of data acquired by observation satellites, UAVs and manned aircraft, at a rate of 1.8 Gbit/s.
This third communication node of the SpaceDataHighway system is to be positioned over the Asia-Pacific region before 2025. EDRS-D will lead to a significant increase in the system’s communication capacity and considerably expand its coverage.
This agreement concerns the co-financing of design and development studies for the satellite payload, as well as of the system as a whole, in addition to the marketing of the SpaceDataHighway service by SKY Perfect JSAT in Japan. With this agreement, the total amount of the investment in the extension of the SpaceDataHighway stands at nearly €15m.
The future EDRS-D payload will consist of three next-generation laser communication terminals (LCT) to allow simultaneous communication with several satellites, as well as aircraft and UAVs. These laser terminals will have broader bandwidth, bi-directional and interoperable communication capability with Japanese laser terminals. This enables a greater range for geo-geo crosslinks with another geostationary SpaceDataHighway satellites at a distance of up to 75,000km., and will offer near real-time relaying of data from the other side of the world.
The relay satellites are designed to lock on to low-orbiting Earth observation satellites via laser and collect their data as they travel thousands of kilometers below, scanning land and oceans. The SpaceDataHighway system then immediately sends the collected data down to Earth from its higher position hovering in geostationary orbit, acting as a data relay node. This process allows the observation satellites to continuously downlink the information they are gathering, instead of having to store it until they travel over their own ground station. That way, they can send down more data, more quickly.
Since the end of 2016, the SpaceDataHighway system has, on a daily basis, been transmitting the images of Earth acquired by the Copernicus program’s four Sentinel observation satellites. It has increased the amount of data the satellites relay down to Europe by around 50 percent for Sentinel-1, and reducing the revisit time to map the whole world from 10 days to 5 days for Sentinel-2.
The SpaceDataHighway is a public–private partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus, with the laser terminals developed by Tesat-Spacecom and the DLR German Space Administration. EDRS-A, the first SpaceDataHighway relay satellite launched in January 2016, offers coverage from the American East Coast to India. A second satellite will be launched in mid-2019. It will double the system’s capacity and extend the coverage and redundancy of the system. (Source: Satnews)
15 Feb 19. Military to move to cyber vulnerability investigations as a service. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has indicated a shift in its procurement strategy for cyber vulnerability investigations (CVIs) for the armed forces. It has begun to look for CVIs – which analyse digital systems and platforms to understand where they may be vulnerable – as a service with separate procurement notices for the air, land and maritime domains (essentially the Air Force, Army and Navy).
CVIs have been run for the armed forces since 2014, based on a methodology developed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and a CVI Ops Cell was set up within the MoD in 2017 to deliver a 10-year programme of the investigations. Until now they have been purchased individually or in packages – a ‘tranche based’ approach – but the procurement notices say this has limited the forces’ agility in responding to changing demands around operations and threats.
Subsequently, the MoD is now looking to establish an ‘as a service’ approach under which suppliers can be called on to deliver the work for the CVI Ops Cell. The business has been valued at up to £9m over a year for each of the three domains. The ministry also indicated that it is planning a further procurement for a service for CVIs that cover all three domains. (Source: https://www.ukauthority.com)
14 Feb 19. Link Microtek optical encoding technology delivers secure wireless communications for QinetiQ test facility. Engineers at a QinetiQ naval-communications test and evaluation facility at Portsdown in Hampshire are reaping significant benefits from the recent installation of an Azdec optical MLC (mobile local communications) system designed and developed by Link Microtek, the manufacturer of optical, RF and microwave products. Dubbed CDIF (communications development and integration facility), the facility is equipped with a vast array of radio systems, simulators and analysers, enabling it to emulate almost any ship’s communication system for purposes such as R&D, capability assurance and operational support. The CDIF is divided into two separate rooms – one housing racks of equipment and the other primarily functioning as a control room – so there is a constant need for personnel to communicate between the two.
Paul Netting, QinetiQ’s Maritime Comms & Networks Team Lead, explains: “Because of the nature of the work we do here, we cannot use an RF-based system of any kind for mobile local communications as the whole building has to be protected from inadvertent leakage of transmissions. Originally we had to either walk from room to room or reel out a telephone extension cable, which was obviously inconvenient and also presented a trip hazard. Now though, the Azdec MLC system has solved this problem.”
Since it employs optical encoding technology, the Azdec system provides QinetiQ personnel with totally secure, interference-free voice communications while allowing them to roam around the CDIF building, unhindered by any trailing wires. There are no RF emissions and the signals cannot be intercepted by any conventional method, so it is impossible for anyone to jam the transmissions or eavesdrop on what is being said.
This also means that the system can operate anywhere within the building without compromising the facility’s red/black communications demarcation. “The optical transmissions cannot couple to other items of equipment, so security is assured regardless of whether the operator is in the red or black area,” said Netting.
The 8-channel Azdec system in the CDIF comprises a compact base station, 14 fixed infra-red antennas, eight binaural headsets, 16 operators’ belt-mounted battery-pack/control units, and a central battery-charger unit.
As well as setting up separate user groups on the different channels, QinetiQ has also tightly integrated the Azdec installation with the CDIF’s VoIP system and configured it so that an engineer standing in front of an equipment rack can use the Azdec headset for an external phone call or even for speaking directly to personnel on a ship at sea. The binaural headset enables the engineer to hear internal comms in the left earpiece while external comms are fed to the right-hand side. Paul Netting again: “Operationally, the Azdec system has been a game-changer in allowing us to communicate effectively without the inconvenience of other methods.”
The optical digital encoding technology at the heart of the Azdec system is completely immune to radio, radar and electrical noise – even severe energy pulses – and has no effect on sensitive electronic equipment. It also carries a Class 1 product designation as defined by the EN 60825-1 standard, which means it presents no ocular or other health hazard to users.
Commenting on the CDIF installation, Link Microtek’s Managing Director Steve Cranstone said: “The Azdec optical communications system has proved itself in a variety of shipborne applications, and we are delighted to see it now being used in a secure test facility as well. In addition to offering crystal clear communications, the optical technology ensures a high level of security compared with other wireless solutions.”
14 Feb 19. Lockheed Martin to develop ‘Silent CROW’ for US Army Multi-Function EW programme. Lockheed Martin’s recent deal to provide its Silent CROW podded system for the US Army’s Multi-Function Electronic Warfare (MFEW) programme is part of a broader surge of interest in electronic warfare/cyber offensive capabilities, the company has told Jane’s.
Lockheed Martin announced in late January that it had won an USD18m deal to design, develop, and test the EW podded system for the ‘Air Large’ component of the MFEW family of systems programme, focusing on the Gray Eagle group 4 unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Silent CROW is an open architecture system that can be configured for different airborne and ground platforms. It is meant to enable US soldiers to disrupt, deny, degrade, deceive, and destroy adversaries’ electronic systems through a variety of electronic and cyber techniques, Lockheed Martin said.
The target platform under Air Large is a group 4 UAS, such as the Gray Eagle, said John Wojnar, a Lockheed Martin director. However, he said, “The same technology could be useful for any kind of electronic warfare, intelligence, cyber, and space capabilities for multi-domain operations,” with Lockheed Martin seeing an increased interest in the area from its customers.
The award consists of two sequential 18-month phased efforts, according to a statement from the US Army’s Project Manager – Electronic Warfare & Cyber Office. The first phase will deliver one prototype system, and demonstrate airborne electronic attack/electronic support capabilities on a surrogate aircraft. Upon the successful completion of Phase 1, a Phase 2 agreement would be executed to deliver four systems for integration onto the Gray Eagle UAS. The Phase 2 award is planned for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 (FY 2020), although the army is evaluating options to accelerate the programme and gain the capabilities at an earlier date, perhaps as early as the fourth quarter of FY 2019. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
14 Feb 19. Norway publishes new cyber strategy focused on civil-military collaboration. Civilian-military collaboration is key to Norway’s new strategy for cyber security, marking the latest effort to examine the grey area between cyber security in the civil and military domains.
The Norwegian plan, which was published in late January, noted that the defence sector depends upon civilian digital infrastructures and services. This means that cyber challenges in the civilian domain are also significant in Norway’s ability to handle security-political crises and to carry out military operations. “In a worst-case scenario, cyber attacks on civilian infrastructures may challenge Norway’s ability to safeguard national security,” the plan noted.
The plan noted that Norway’s ‘total defence’ concept encompasses military support for civilian society and civilian support for the armed forces; the contribution of the military to public security also translates into an improved ability to safeguard state security, “given that a well-functioning civilian society and robust public security form an important foundation for well-functioning military defence”. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
15 Feb 19. NCI Agency awards contract to Leonardo for cyber defence. NCI Agency has awarded a contract to Leonardo for continued cyber-incident detection and management services for a period of 18 months. This latest NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) Cyber Security Support Services (CSSS) contract offers continuity of service to the NCIRC – Full Operational Capability (FOC) contract, which will end this month. Leonardo has been working with the NCI Agency since 2012 to protect Nato’s Communications and Information System (CIS) infrastructure from cyber-attacks.
More than 200 digital security experts from Leonardo and NCI Agency offer cyber incident detection, management and rapid-response capabilities, covering Nato staff in 29 countries. This cybersecurity cover extends from portable devices up to networks at 75 locations, including Nato headquarters. NCIRC-FOC had been operationally employed to protect the Nato summits in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
The NCIRC CSSS contract comes after NCIRC-FOC was operated for over several years. NCIRC-FOC expanded under the ten additional sites contract in 2015 to include the newly opened European headquarters. This contract was completed on schedule in 2017 in line with the required budget and specification. In 2016, the Leonardo and NCI Agency signed an Industrial Partnership Agreement (IPA) to share information regarding cybersecurity, which would enable them to gain a better understanding of threat patterns and attack trends. In addition to delivering cybersecurity expertise to Nato, Leonardo also offers support to individual nation states, large corporations and financial institutions. In 2017, the company was chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the cybersecurity partner for the Galileo European navigation satellite programme. The firm also operates in the Gulf and South East Asia, where it works with government and industry customers. Continuing to invest in its cyber expertise, Leonardo’s services and products are designed to evolve with changing requirements in cyberspace.
Leonardo provides certified training, as well as Cyber Academy and Cyber Range design and delivery, which enables specialists to practise against new and emerging threats.
In June 2018, the firm tripled the size of its cyber and electronic warfare capacity in Lincoln, UK, providing the capacity to train 150 students at any one time. In February 2018, Leonardo secured a contract valued at approximately €180m to provide electronic warfare training equipment for the Nato Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff (JEWCS). Selected in an international competition, the firm will incorporate technology from partners Cobham and Elettronica. The contract was placed by the UK Ministry of Defence as the host nation for Nato JEWCS. The firm will deliver the equipment over the next four years from Leonardo’s Electronic Warfare (EW) centre of excellence in Luton, UK. (Source: army-technology.com)
14 Feb 19. US Navy renames system centers to information warfare centers. The Navy’s primary IT organization is renaming its subordinate centers to better reflect the reality of information warfare Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Commander Rear Adm. Christian Becker told an audience Feb. 13 at the West 2019 conference that the SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic and SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific will now respectively be referred to as Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic and Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.
“The missions will stay the same but a name’s important because it tells us the focus that we need to have on information warfare,” he said. “This is not changing the missions or functions and tasks of our centers, rather evolving to show and demonstrate that focus.”
The change is expected to take place Feb. 19.
One of the key distinctions Becker hopes the new names will bring is shifting focus from delivering a system to delivering a capability that aligns with the rest of the warfare centers across the platforms.
“When we think about warfare centers in the Navy … we think of places like Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Naval Air Warfare Center, Naval Surface Warfare Center. We’re aligning and normalizing with that; Naval Information Warfare Center,” he said. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
15 Feb 19. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) celebrated the grand opening of a new Cyber Innovation Lab on UCF’s campus that will help meet the growing local and national need for cybersecurity talent. The lab’s opening was celebrated with a ribbon cutting, a demonstration by UCF’s Collegiate Cyber Defense Club (Hack@UCF) and a panel discussion with U.S. military and Lockheed Martin cyber experts about technology trends and how students can prepare for a career in the growing field.
“This lab will serve as the campus’ primary hub for students to develop and expand their information security skills, preparing them to enter this high demand field and take on the cyber security threats of the future,” said UCF President Dale Whittaker. “We are grateful for Lockheed Martin’s longtime partnership and strong commitment to our students’ success.”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates there are more than 13,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in Florida alone. That trend will continue, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs for information security analysts will grow 28 percent by 2026.
“The future battlespace will be heavily reliant on cyber… even more so than we’re seeing today,” said Stephanie C. Hill, deputy executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems. “By working with institutions like UCF, through labs like this one, we’ll all better understand and accelerate our shared capabilities and potential to adapt and innovate in the fifth domain.”
In 2018, Lockheed Martin donated $1.5m to UCF to help create the Cyber Innovation Lab and encourage the next-generation of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent to collaborate and solve today’s challenging cyber problems. The company’s donation will fund software and technology support to the lab, and employees will also provide cyber training and professional mentoring to engineering students.
“Having a centralized space will streamline the way we organize our meetings and practices,” said Hack@UCF President David Maria, a senior studying computer engineering. “With this lab, we can practice for competitions, host workshops and speakers, provide cyber security tools and resources, and give our student members a sense of community and help get them ready for future careers. It’s not just a practice space. It’s a home for us.”
The 970-square-foot lab is located in UCF’s Engineering I building and will serve as a learning hub for the more than 350 students participating in cyber programs at UCF. Hack@UCF, a four-time national champion in competitions like the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and the U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition, will also use the lab as its primary practice center.
In Orlando, Lockheed Martin employs approximately 2,500 UCF graduates, with plans to expand its cyber workforce. The company’s local Cyber Solutions business grew 400 percent over the past five years and expects that growth to continue as the nation seeks offensive and defensive cyber security capabilities to address the evolving cyber threats.
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Spectra Group Plc
Spectra has a proven record of accomplishment – with over 15 years of experience in delivering secure communications and cybersecurity solutions for governments around the globe; elite militaries; and private enterprises of all sizes.
As a dynamic, agile, security accredited organisation, Spectra can leverage this experience to deliver Cyber Advisory and secure Hosted and Managed Solutions on time, to spec and on budget, ensuring compliance with industry standards and best practices.
Spectra’s SlingShot® is a unique low SWaP system that enables in-service U/VHF tactical radios to utilise Inmarsat’s commercial satellite network for BLOS COTM. Including omnidirectional antenna for the man, vehicle, maritime and aviation platforms, the tactical net can broadcast over 1000s miles between forward units and a rear HQ, no matter how or where the deployment. Unlike many BLOS options, SlingShot maintains full COTM (Communications On The Move) capability and low size and weight
On 23 November 2017, Spectra Group (UK) Ltd announced that it had recently been listed as a Top 100 Government SME Supplier for 2015-2016 by the UK Crown Commercial Services
Spectra’s CEO, Simon Davies, was awarded 2017 BATTLESPACE Businessman of the Year by BATTLESPACE magazine and is a finalist in the inaugural British Ex-Forces In Business Awards in the Innovator Of The Year category.
Founded in 2002, the Company is based in Hereford, UK and holds ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.
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