Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019 27 PersPectiVe Sponsored Content "One would have missed the mark if they viewed cyberspace as a "new" domain inde- pendent of land, air, sea and space. In fact, hybrid warfare used by our adversaries, by intent, considers all five domains. At Gener- al Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada, we are working to ensure our solutions across all domains are as secure as possible from a cyber perspective," said Alkarim Amlani, Director of Cyber Operations, General Dy- namics Mission Systems–Canada. Falling into "the trap" of viewing cyber as an entirely new domain could also ar- tificially raise the need to perform major overhauls to a TacCIS while increasing the costs associated with supporting functions such as training and system management. The TacCIS must be adapted and evolved based on the new considerations brought forth by cyberspace in order to deliver the mission-specific tools needed to also navi- gate the fifth domain and address current and future adversaries head-on. Planning and Managing the System Operating in Cyberspace, a TacCIS is a collection of interconnected networks based on different technologies, many transmitting over disadvantaged, intermit- tent and lossy (DIL) communication links which enable the command and control of deployed forces. Cyberspace is multi-dimensional and highly complex in its nature compared to the traditional domains of air, land, sea, and space. The expansion into multi-tiered planes (see image) increases the attack sur- face volume used for reactive, defensive, and active cyber operations. The TacCIS forms a component of the Physical, Network and Information layers of cyberspace. While historically, the Tac- CIS could be viewed as operating indepen- dently to other control systems and Inter- net of Things devices within these three layers, the existence of the persona, people and social layers are now causing this sepa- ration to weaken or become non-existent. New attack vectors create a credible risk. At the social, persona and people layer, they could easily bypass traditional perime- ter controls or historically trusted network and information controls. Further increas- ing the impact of these threats is the speed at which these attack vectors could enter and adapt or how long an adversary can remain undetected within the TacCIS. "Cyber situational awareness augments existing situational awareness, and any up- grades to the TacCIS system must main- tain existing capability and further enhance considerations specific to cyberspace using a multi-layer incremental approach inten- tionally designed to adapt to the threat landscape and technology innovations of tomorrow while meeting the operational needs of today," said Amlani. Cyber Challenges in a tacCiS The challenges of operating a TacCIS in cyberspace range from understanding the threat and accepting that the threat could come from a traditional enemy, an unknown actor, a more traditional insider threat and an intentional or unintentional piece of code introduced in one of the multiple computers or processors found in all military systems. Planning and man- aging the deployment of a TacCIS must ensure that system vulnerabilities are mini- mized; given the nature and inter-connec- tivity of systems today, it is impossible to eliminate them. The rapid advancement of information technology results in a con- tinual change to a TacCIS to leverage new capabilities for the warfighter, address vul- nerabilities and to deal with obsolescence. Addressing these challenges requires re- liable and predictable funding to achieve the required system evolution and train operators to plan, deploy and protect net- works and the information they support; both of these are difficult to realize. Ar- guably the biggest challenge today is find- ing the people to operate these systems. It is estimated that there are as many as 3.5 million unfilled cyber security jobs; for the military, this is further complicated by the reality that those with the skills and aptitude for these jobs are not those who might typically join the military. Cyber Architecture Foundational to having innovative flex- ibility is an adaptable cyber security archi- tecture optimized for use in disconnected, intermittent and low-bandwidth environ- ments. Some of the key components of the TacCIS cyber architecture include the ability to: • Hide cyber security complexity from us- ers through rules-based automation and workflow-based activities • Enable rapid technology acquisition through a modular design and a sup- porting architecture to support system evolution and technology insertion • Offer user customizable interfaces and dashboards to provide cyber situational awareness fully integrated with existing situational awareness interfaces at the dismounted, mobile and headquarters domain • Provide fully supported software devel- opment kits to enable third parties to develop management plug-ins for new technologies and equipment • Deliver interfaces which effect and ob- serve target networks and the ability to collect and distribute threat intelligence data beyond standard capabilities Deploying a tacCiS Solution in Cyber Space Ultimately, the TacCIS is an essential ca- pability used by soldiers during missions in all five domains. And as nations and militaries around the world establish and deploy cyber operation forces, the TacCIS continues to be an essential enabler to sup- port mission objectives. "As the method in which the battle is fought has not changed, the approach to enabling the TacCIS to support cyber- space mission objectives must follow an evolutionary path which builds upon the capabilities that are currently being used in land, air, sea and space to address cur- rent and future adversaries head-on," said Fawcett. Richard Fawcett, Director of Strategy, General Dynamics Mission Systems– Canada Alkarim Amlani, Director of Cyber Operations, General Dynamics Mission Systems– Canada

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