Modeling of Cyber Behaviors to Wargame and Assess Risk (MOC-WAR)
Navy SBIR FY2013.2


Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2013.2
Topic No.: N132-132
Topic Title: Modeling of Cyber Behaviors to Wargame and Assess Risk (MOC-WAR)
Proposal No.: N132-132-0141
Firm: Charles River Analytics Inc.
625 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Contact: Peter Weyhrauch
Phone: (617) 491-3474
Web Site: www.cra.com
Abstract: Adversaries are becoming ever more proficient at cyber attacks against our military's infrastructure, making offensive and defensive cyber operations an essential component of today's military activities. While the Navy has focused significant resources on cyber defense, these operations are largely reactive in nature, addressing events after the initial attack. Augmenting our cyber defense with proactive tools to analyze the goals and decision-making processes of adversaries will enable cyber defenders to shape the battlespace, limiting, and even driving, adversary options and reducing the threat on our infrastructure. To do this, cyber defenders need to understand the motivations, goals, behaviors, and limitations of those adversaries, and how those factors interact with policies, users, and defenses. To address these needs, we propose a Phase I effort to design and demonstrate a system for Modeling Cyber Behaviors to Wargame and Assess Risk (MOC-WAR). MOC-WAR provides a hybrid, modular behavior modeling framework to construct flexible adversary, defender, user, and policy maker models that can be rapidly updated as adversary strategies evolve. Using these models, MOC-WAR provides simulation engines and analysis tools that allow analysts and defenders to wargame behavioral interactions with adversaries, and proactively select policies and defenses that minimize adversary threats.
Benefits: We expect the full-scope MOC-WAR system to have immediate and tangible benefits to cyber defenders across the US military, Government, and industry. MOC-WAR will provide our nation's defenders and policy makers with an unprecedented understanding of the behaviors of our adversaries, allowing them to proactively select defensive mechanisms to reduce potential threats and attack vectors. In the commercial sector, MOC-WAR promises to provide a unique analysis capability that can be licensed to established security developers (e.g., Symantec Corp, Intel) and marketed as a defensive tool to companies trying to protect their intellectual property.

Return