General Electric (GE) Research is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on a $4.9 million project to develop on open source cybersecurity toolkit for military and industrial systems.
The Verification Evidence and Resilient Design in Anticipation of Cybersecurity Threats (VERDICT) project aim to assess the cybersecurity of the critical systems and strengthen protections to boost cyber resiliency. The goal is to develop a comprehensive system that can prescribe the best defense measures for each system VERDICT assesses.
“A key objective of VERDICT is to deliver a thorough cyber threat assessment that not only flags a system’s vulnerabilities but also recommends the best defense measures to address them,” Kit Siu, senior engineer of GE Research Lab’s Controls and Optimization team, said in an April 6 press release.
She explained, “This could work across many types of systems, from military platforms like a ship or aircraft to critical infrastructure like a power plant or wind farm.”
While military systems are often operated through a cloud platform to improve cyber resiliency, Siu said it was still possible for malicious actors to hack the system. The toolkit will allow the military to “see the potential vulnerabilities more clearly and enable measures to strengthen protections,” she said.
The project is through DARPA’s Cyber Assured Systems Engineering (CASE) program. CASE supports the design, analysis, and verification of critical systems cyber resiliency. The program primarily supports critical infrastructure, vehicles, smart devices, and military systems.
