
Cyber Mission Assurance – The Evaluation, Protection and Exploitation of Military Systems Through Cyberspace.
As demonstrated by the interest in the protection of critical infrastructure, cyber-physical systems are integral to many complex domains that form integral parts of modern societies. The same dependency is found in the ships, aircrafts, vehicles, and weapon systems used by modern militaries. This paper will discuss Cyber Mission Assurance and its implications for governments and modern militaries. The paper will define Mission Assurance generally and Cyber Mission Assurance specifically. It will examine the activities that must be carried out to ensure that military systems are prepared to survive and operate in a contested Cyber Domain, paying particular attention to the need for vulnerability analysis and penetration testing of weapon systems.
The subject will be further illustrated through the presentation of various research efforts in the security of Operational Technology and Platform Technology conducted at the Royal Military College of Canada’s Computer Security Laboratory. The case studies examined will include work supervised by the author in intrusion detection on non-traditional networks found in aircraft, vehicles and ships. We will also discuss research thrusts in vehicular intrusion prevention systems and the application of vulnerability assessment methodologies to bespoke military systems.
The author argues that the insights gained by the examination of Cyber Mission Assurance are beneficial to a much wider audience in the field of Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Sylvain Leblanc
Dr. Sylvain (Sly) Leblanc is a Professor in Computer Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), where he is also serving as Chair for Cybersecurity and Primary Investigator of the Computer Security Laboratory (CSL).
Dr. Leblanc’s research interests are in computer security and computer network operations with major efforts in the Cyber Security of Vehicular Systems, Network Counter-Surveillance and Deception Operations, Vulnerability & Security Assessments and Cyber Education.
Dr. Leblanc’s major industrial collaborations are with the Director Cyber Operations Force Development with whom he works on Cyber Policy Conceptual Development and Human Resource aspects of the Cyber Force. He is also involved with the Canadian Army’s Land Cyber Mission Assurance Program. He was a Canadian Army Signals Officer for over 20 years, when he developed his interest in cyber operations and cybersecurity.