ACC Practice Center > Cybersecurity > Who can comment on what...

Who can comment on what worth there is, and exactly what the National Cyber Range (NCR) can provide, to aircraft testing, the aircraft either sitting on the ground or flying hundreds of miles away from the NCR (assuming that is possible)? (1 answer)

Question

Helpful Votes

Private

In doing research related to the other question that I on this forum that I forwarded, I came across the National Cyber Range. I've seen plenty of briefings but being new to this I thought it might be wise to get opinions from people who have worked with this org. As the question posed shows, my emphasis is in aircraft testing with either the aircraft being on the ground (both sitting still and taxiing) and flying around in some airspace. In all cases, the aircraft being remote to the NCR.

What other assets and/or orgs exist for testing aircraft in the area of cyber?

All Responses

0
Helpful Votes

Private

Sep 22, 2016

Thank you for your patience. The response below is based on DAU instructor experience with the cyber ranges:
- They usually have emulations of representative network environments and specialized systems (platforms and weapons systems).
- These emulations could be from a virtualization of assets or a representative configured sample of the platform.
- Live assets could possibly be used, such as an aircraft sitting on the ground - but only with extreme caution.
- The purpose of the range is to conduct cyber testing on the assets. This helps mitigate risks associated with cyber operational testing on open operational networks.
- If a real asset was used, it would need to be able to be reset to a known trusted state.
- Aircraft, weapons systems, or other platforms tend to be either representations (such as a virtualization of the asset) or a configured and managed representation of the platform on the cyber range.
- A virtualization or the configured version of the platform could provide the required information for the cyber testing, but not expose operational assets or networks to an unnecessary risk.

-- Updated Sep 22, 2016 --