For the last 14 months Nova Systems has been working across the full capability lifecycle to support Defence in delivering resilient systems that provide a greater chance of mission success when operating in cyber denied environments.
According to the company's general manager (Communications, Information & Space) Nick Pengelly, a systems engineering based Cyber Security Capability maturity model has been developed based on Defence and industry best practice to establish the maturity of system design, implementation and governance.
“Our Cyber Security consultants have designed a cyber security range to keep abreast of emergent Information and Communication Technology (ICT) technical vulnerabilities,” Pengelly said. “The Cyber Range functions like a digital battlefield, not just a weapon ‘range’ or sandbox for training in a specific tool.”
The range aims to strengthen the stability, security and performance of infrastructure used by cyber professionals, utility providers, military and aviation specialists.
“A key attribute of the Cyber Range is having full control over its infrastructure, and by using real world artefacts, it can be driven with robust user activity models to provide realistic behavior,” Pengelly said.
He added this behaviour can be used as an accurate model to assist in mission analysis, concept of operations, detailed design, subsystem verification, system validation, maintenance and mission to achieve real success.
The Cyber Range capabilities will be extended to cover:
• Replication, of complex and diverse networks for civilian and military clients;
• enablement of a realistic testing facility for Internet and Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerability research and training;
• The development and deployment of cutting edge cyber testing capabilities;
• A virtual environment for the quantitative, qualitative and realistic assessment of potentially ground-breaking cybertechnologies for research and development; and
• an environment for cyberwarfare training, cybertechnology development, cybertechnology deployment.
Pengelly explained the range and Nova's capability assurance will provide a means of assessing the risk of operational scenario achievement; tracing possible Cyber Security issues and likely impacts back to the Systems of Systems interfaces, Mission System architecture, Training scope and Organisational Standard Operational procedures.
“We're effectively reducing the risk so as to provide better value for money outcomes for Defence in the delivery of capability outcomes.”