February 19, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University’s contribution to the war in cyberspace was officially opened
today by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Sen. McConnell launched a simulated attack on a computer network, which was quickly detected and exposed.
The Network Attack Characterization Modeling and Simulation Testbed, or NACMAST, is a collaborative effort between WKU, Mississippi State University, University of Arizona and EDAptive Computing Inc. sponsored by the Army Research Lab, Center for Intrusion Monitoring and Protection. The prime contractor is Electronic Warfare Associates Government Systems Inc.
NACMAST is funded by $2.8 million in defense appropriations secured by Sen. McConnell. The testbed is located in a 1,200 square foot Cyber Defense Lab built by WKU at the Innovation and Commercialization Center and funded by a $269,000 contract with EWA.
EWA Vice President Ed Tivol said the project is a classic example of how government, academia and industry can work together to meet real needs.
The testbed, located next to the EWA offices in WKU’s Center for Research and Development, is a series of computers designed to develop and test tools to protect Department of Defense computer networks.
“The computers are set up to play different roles,” Tivol said. “You have victim computers, attacking computers and referee computers who are looking over the whole thing and recording the information.”
The tools are designed to detect anomalies and immediately take action to protect the networks against attacks, he said. The research and development effort addresses three critical problems affecting the security of Department of Defense networks: the increased number of attacks, lack of a near-real-time detection and characterization capability, and lack of central focus and management for the development of new security tools.
“This laboratory addresses the other war that we’re in. We know about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re at war in cyberspace right now,” Tivol said. “We have been, we are and we will be at war in cyberspace and that is not a statement of hyperbole. There are over a quarter of a million attempted attacks on Department of Defense networks. Fortunately, most of them are not successful. But the sheer magnitude of that is enough to give you pause.”
Sen. McConnell called the research “incredible. We spend billions of dollars in the defense department every year warding off attacks from cyberspace and I think it’s terrific that Western Kentucky University is involved as one of the prime universities figuring out how to ward off these attacks and these threats to our national security.”
Tony Pressley of the Center for Intrusion Monitoring and Protection said the attacks are scary. “The public only sees the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“This is so important to the Department of Defense and the Department of the Army. We need this,” Pressley said. The software being developed by the NACMAST team addresses attacks by sophisticated hackers, adding the partnership “engages smart people in the industry and smart people in universities to help us develop new tools and new methodology.”
WKU President Gary Ransdell said he was proud that WKU was a partner in the program and praised Sen. McConnell for his support in securing $56 million in federal research funds to the University over the past 10 years.
“Sen. McConnell has created huge capacity for our students and our faculty to be part of the solutions and to identify and solve problems,” Dr. Ransdell said.
Tivol said opening the testbed is the first step toward creating a recognized center for the development and validation of such tools. The group is also looking at expanding the scope to other government agencies and commercial entities.
“This laboratory and the work being done by the NACMAST team offers tremendous downstream commercial potential to protect information and vital networks,” Tivol said.
Blaine Ferrell, dean of WKU’s Ogden College of Science and Engineering, agreed. “Every industry is vulnerable to attack and to having secrets stolen,” he said.
Dr. Ferrell added that the research being conducted includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and fits in well with the push to increase the science, technology, engineering and math student pipeline in Kentucky.
“It’s only when you have this caliber activity going, that captures the imagination of students and makes them realize they can do this kind of work in Kentucky, that you will have more students pursuing science, engineering and mathematics degrees,” he said.
WKU’s role in the collaboration includes hosting the physical plant and establishing and maintaining the development network; developing and maintaining test data sets; establishing test plans and procedures; conducting analyses; certifying test results and providing input into the modeling and simulation process.
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