Tag Archive for: Architecture

Into the ‘outernet’: Secure ‘internet in space’ key to future Space Force hybrid architecture

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T1TL mesh constellation_Northrop Grumman.

The Space Development Agency will begin launching its Tranche 1 Transport Layer communications mesh network in 2024. (Image: Northrop Grumman)

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward a future “hybrid space architecture” comprising military and commercial satellites in multiple orbits, moving to design a foundational cyber-protected network integration capability — i.e., a hack-proof (or close to it anyway) “internet in space,” officials say.

The hybrid space architecture concept is an outgrowth of Space Force chief Gen. Jay Raymond’s 2020 “Vision for Enterprise Satellite Communications,” first reported by Breaking Defense. And while various experimental efforts to validate the concept of a space-based internet for military users have been ongoing since then, the Defense Department and the Space Force only recently have fully embraced the concept and moved to coordinate a holistic effort to design and develop the capabilities need to substantiate it.

The Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU),  the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Space Development Agency (SDA) now are cooperating in this potentially revolutionary effort, officials involved told Breaking Defense, which in turn will be a key to enabling Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) for future high-speed, information-centric warfare across the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. The concept would see concentric circles of satellite communications (SATCOM) networks — highly encrypted military constellations, slightly less secure SATCOM provided by allies, and unclassified commercial constellations.

Recently SWAC has made progress in developing the overarching space data transport “force design” for the concept. Meanwhile, DIU’s project with AFRL, which is designing the glue that will patch the disparate SATCOM networks together, just last week announced concrete steps as well, officials involved said.

And while SDA has already begun to launch a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit, called the Transport Layer, to allow high speed, low latency, internet-capable data communications, those…

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NIST Releases Draft Zero-Trust Architecture Guide

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Agencies looking to adopt zero-trust security architecture can expect to see new guidance roll out throughout this summer.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) works with government agencies, industry organizations and academic institutions to create example solutions for pressing cybersecurity concerns, and in recent years turned its focus to zero trust, said NCCoE Security Engineer and Project Manager Alper Kerman during an RSA Conference panel.

Under its Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture project, NCCoE has been working to identify the core components of a zero-trust approach, as well as demonstrate different ways for achieving it, using commercially available technologies. The effort aims to show how a zero-trust architecture could work for different scenarios such as an employee or guest user trying to access online resources, or a contractor trying to access an on-premise resource, Kerman said.


Now in early June, NCCoE has released a draft guide, with more to follow.

“We want to be able to figure out what would be the minimum viable solution that would give us some level of zero-trust orchestration,” Kerman said.

There are three key aspects of a zero-trust architecture: enhanced identity governance (EIG), micro segmentation and software-defined perimeters, he said. Organizations may find it easier to focus more heavily on one or another, depending on their workflows, while still including elements of the other two, per NIST.

For the project, NCCoE is first demonstrating zero-trust example scenarios that focus on EIG techniques and is releasing preliminary drafts of its guidance on this method.

On June 3, NCCoE released a draft high-level overview document intended to help leadership consider their planning. NCCoE will be following up with two more detailed and technical guides, with those drafts slated for release in July and August.

WHAT’S ZERO TRUST AGAIN?

Zero trust isn’t a specific standard but rather “a set of principles used in designing and implementing and operating an infrastructure,” said NIST Computer Scientist…

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Self-Hosting Security Guide for your HomeLab

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Army research budget focuses on integrated tactical electronic warfare architecture

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WASHINGTON — Despite a slashed electronic warfare procurement proposal, the U.S. Army still plans hefty investment in research and development to build out a battlefield architecture with the ultimate goal to link with national electronic and cyber tactical systems.

The envisioned cyber and electromagnetic activities architecture would integrate a set of systems to allow the Army to conduct multidomain operations across distributed locations and connect its own tactically focused platforms, along with connecting to national strategic systems. Pending congressional approval, the Army’s research and development funding for key systems that make up the structure — most under development for years — would hold steady or slightly increase over the service’s projections, with one new large addition:

  • Multi-Function Electronic Warfare: The Army cut procurement in fiscal 2022 for the airborne jamming pod mounted to a MQ-1C Gray Eagle, but it will still develop the technology, bumping its research and development request to $12 million, up from $9 million the Army predicted a year before that the project would need.
  • Terrestrial Layer System Brigade Combat Team: Research funding for the first integrated cyber, signals intelligence and electronic warfare system for brigades would meet Army projections at about $39.7 million.
  • Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool: The Army’s $16.8 million research and development request and $700,000 procurement figure matched its projections for the system to allow commanders to plan and visualize their invisible battle space.
  • Terrestrial Layer System Echelons Above Brigade: The Army wants $19.5 million R&D funds for this new program that will provide commanders at echelons above brigade capabilities for sensing, improved geolocating, conducting nonkinetic fires and supporting kinetic targeting.

In contrast to the strong R&D budget, the Army’s proposed procurement budget dropped from $123 million enacted in FY21 to $48 million requested for FY22.

For one big cut, the Army zeroed out the MFEW jamming pod procurement to try to save $12 million, part of a larger divestment effort to reserve money for higher priorities.

The $12…

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