Cyber Effects within a Kinetic Model
(Room S320B)
29 Nov 17
8:30 AM
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9:00 AM
Often when the military talks about cyber training, the focus is on a “cyber range” in which operators practice their skills and test new tools and techniques. This level of training is necessary but not sufficient to prepare US forces to dominate a tactical battlefield against a cyber-savvy adversary in a Multi-Domain Battle environment (Shrinkman, 2016). Stimulating staffs by integrating cyber and traditional military operations is critical. Cyber operations at the tactical level involve both offensive and defensive actions – integrated and supporting traditional military operations – where cyber may be the supported operation within traditional military operations, and vice versa.
There are limited means of representing cyber operations and effects – beyond simple models of communication and network degradation – within most simulations. The Army has funded the architecture prototype implementation to link cyber and kinetic simulations leveraging the strengths of each simulation without trying to force both sets of capabilities into a single model. Cyber actions (e.g., SQL injection attacks to gain control of a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems) are best represented in live or synthetic cyber simulations. Cyber effects (e.g., the cyber operator shuts off the power to an area of interest) are then represented in a constructive simulation.
The integration of the cyber simulation with constructive simulation allows realization of the effects from cyber operations on the kinetic domain and the effects from kinetic operations on the cyber domain. The interface between the cyber simulation and constructive simulation was standardized, allowing improved and reliable integration. As this interface matures, it may be used to link any arbitrary cyber and kinetic simulations that comply with the interface. The constructive simulation was enhanced to model streetlights, searchlights, cameras, and controller systems (e.g. SCADA). Additionall