New ARL study aims to improve network resilience amid cyberattack on US Army
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has published a new report to help boost the country’s ICT network resilience in the event of a cyberattack on U.S. Army.
ARL researcher, in a study known as Network Adaptations Under Cascading Failures for Mission-Oriented Networks, called for a new approach that could improve computer networks resilience against a cyberattack on US Army
In the wake of recent airstrikes that killed General Qassem Soleimani, cybersecurity is at the forefront of policy discussions and planning for a potential conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
The US Department of Homeland Security has recently issued an alarm on a possible uptick in Iranian cyberattacks against U.S. government and civilian targets.
A new ARL study, conducted in collaboration with Virginia Tech, discovered that adaptation is the key marker in determining network resilience amid cyberattacks against U.S. targets.
The U.S. government established the partnership to develop network adaptation strategies that support the maintenance of services during cyberattacks.
At this first stage, the goal is to avert cyber activities from taking place by
strengthening cyber defences or minimising the risks of hostile attacks.
One of the key trends in international affairs over the last decade is the development and growth of cyber capabilities. As, arguably, the most pre-eminent global power, the U.S. is both a propagator and largest victim of these activities.
US Army researcher Terry Moore said, “Simply having network connectivity does not imply that a network can provide the services it needs.”
“A key result of this work is showing that typical measures of performance for network resilience do not apply to mission-oriented or task-service networks.”
“We mathematically prove that without consideration of the resources or task priority, network connectivity is not a sufficient measure for determining mission success,” Moore added.
Defence Insight Analysis
The study analysed a tactical network supporting multiple tasks of different priority levels and focused on the survivability of the tasks when facing a cyberattack.
The study involved a scenario with limited resources for nodes.
The focus was on how many tasks could be maintained in the face of component failure.
Researchers also conducted a computational simulation to address the threat of sequential failure of nodes. The study ultimately suggested that new strategies could be adopted for selecting new nodes to ensure the tasks remain unaffected.
