Photo By Antwaun Parrish | Dan Stewart (left), Cybersecurity & Privacy Division; Katherine Coviello (center),...... read more read more
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REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama— Two members of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command G6 Cybersecurity staff were recently selected for a Technology Team Award by the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).
Dan Stewart, Cybersecurity & Privacy Division, and Wes Slone, Cybersecurity Compliance Team Lead, were both presented this prestigious award, during the NDIA-TVC awards dinner held at the Jackson Center, Huntsville, Alabama, Sept. 22.
Stewart and Slone received the award for their cybersecurity work on an artificial intelligence/machine learning proof-of-concept project at Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) in Texas. The project is led by the Defense Intelligence Innovation Office and has partnerships with Army Materiel Command, AMCOM, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the University of Arizona, and the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. CCAD was selected as the pilot location and two CCAD Organic Industrial Base (OIB) equipment lines were selected for the proof of concept. The goal of the pilot is to integrate machine- learning capabilities into OIB operations that support cyber resiliency and improve cyber security protections within the OIB within AMC and the DoD as a whole.
Stewart and Slone were selected for this award through the NDIA Tennessee Valley Chapter’s independent selection panel.
“AMCOM Cybersecurity was approached by senior cyber leadership at AMC, and was asked if AMCOM was willing to participate in a machine-learning project for Industrial Cybersecurity,” said Stewart. “AMCOM senior leadership approved the project and subsequently contacted CCAD representatives to request their participation.”
AMC is the headquarters for Organic Industrial Bases across the United States. The OIB provides reset capabilities for military hardware and software platforms used by the U.S. Army, joint warfighters and international partners.
“Reset operations for the Black Hawk helicopter are performed at CCAD,” said Stewart. “Black Hawk helicopters that have been [deployed] and require repair/reset are stripped down to the metal air frame, all wiring is removed, and any metal that needs to be replaced is fabricated onsite. Once repaired, the airframe is built back up piece by piece to like-new condition, is tested to military specifications and is subsequently returned to service.”
Stewart went on to state that the machines the CCAD artisans use are quite expensive, have a long life span (20 to 30 years), and were originally built without “baked in” cybersecurity.
“An example of an attack would be a denial of service attack where the machine was rendered unusable due to an injection of malicious software code,” said Stewart. “ The machine-learning technology being tested at CCAD has the ability to learn what instructions should be sent to the equipment, who is authorized to send them, and what type of instructions are normal versus abnormal. Once the software learns what is normal versus abnormal behavior, pre-determined actions can be set to notify pre-defined personnel when abnormal behavior is detected, or to simply block or ignore the potentially malicious instructions being sent to the ICS.”
Both Stewart and Slone reflected on how this award affects them both personally and professionally.
“It’s wonderful to be recognized personally and professionally but the progress made so far wouldn’t have happened without cooperation from everyone and especially the staff at Corpus Christi Army Depot,” said Stewart. “This is very much a team effort and has far-reaching potential benefits to not only those currently involved but to the entire U.S. Department of Defense and [our] allied partners.”
“Professional recognition serves as a catalyst to create future opportunities to continue to serve the great men and women of our armed forces and build a stronger national defense for our country, specifically, within the realm of industrial cybersecurity,” said Slone. “Personally, it’s great to be recognized for the efforts put into this project and to build support for the machine-learning effort in the [AMC’s organic industrial base].”
Stewart and Slone contribute their selection to the overall team effort, and views this achievement as a benefit to not only themselves, but to the overall mission.
“This award acknowledges the very important work AMCOM is pursuing for enhanced cybersecurity in the OIB, and recognizes the vision of senior leadership within AMCOM and the AMCOM Command Group to support these projects,” said Stewart.
Stewart and Sloan went on to state that they would like to thank the following individuals for their support to make the project possible:
• Maj. Gen. Todd Royar, AMCOM Commanding General
• Col. Michael Martel, AMC G6
• Shirley Perkey, AMCOM Chief Information Officer
• Joan McDonald, AMCOM Governance and Cybersecurity Director
• Connie Sales, CCAD Chief Information Officer
| Date Taken: | 09.24.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.29.2020 15:49 |
| Story ID: | 379688 |
| Location: | HUNTSVILLE, AL, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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