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All MITRE Projects (with summaries and presentations where available)
Listing of project titles in alphabetical order
Pages: 1234567891011121314151617
Survivable Critical Network Services
Primary Investigator:Phipps, Charles w.
Problems:
Critical network service infrastructures possess characteristics that are vulnerable to exploitation, denial, and subversive activities by our adversaries due to embedded or undetected vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities present risk due, in part, to the current implementation practices that reward a firm configuration baseline and significant administrative burden to create change. Some of the infrastructure-based services that are critical to continue mission-related operations are also susceptible to exploitation due to their public-facing interfaces (external DMZ), including Domain Naming Service (DNS), Directory Services, Network Timing Service, Web Services, and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). These services are also present in internal-facing DMZs to support organizational intranets. Protected internal services are open to access by the entire organization and are therefore at risk from insider threats or malware that has been inadvertently introduced to the trusted environment. The critical nature of these services is based on the impact that a compromise can have to a broad set of users and other dependent services.
Objectives:
Our objective is to research and apply technologies that will implement resilient network services for critical applications. Resiliency will be enhanced through the implementation and rapid reconfiguration of service delivery components to reduce the potential for persistent access gained through the exploitation of supply chain and other zero day vulnerabilities. Our plan includes the use of forensics analysis to influence the resource pool through feedback to the control system, thereby reducing the potential that an adversary will be able to repeatedly use a set of exploits to reduce mission assurance.
Activities:
We will demonstrate improved mission assurance by showing that critical services can be made intrusion tolerant and survivable in the presence of an attack. This tolerance will be achieved by dynamically shifting the service delivery components among the pool of hardware and software resources. We will develop an understanding of the speed with which reconfiguration can occur (increased “entropy”) while service availability is maintained at acceptable levels. Particular aspects that will be investigated include the impact of varying the size of the resource pool and the speed with which the components are rotated into and out of the operational service delivery processes. Upon removing a particular resource from operational service, we will determine the speed with which systems can be forensically studied to provide beneficial feedback to control of the resource pool.
Impact:
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will gain a new capability that enhances the DoD’s ability to tolerate sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure services. The operational mission of the sponsor may be more survivable in the face of supply chain and zero day vulnerabilities. The technology and processes developed will serve the vendor community such that the products employing these techniques will be considered viable commercial offerings that will support mission needs across the DoD.
Public Release No:09-0861
[Presentation]
Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research - Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (STAR-TIDES)
Primary Investigator:French, Michael R.
Problems:
MITRE provided project planning, knowledge management, and emerging technology demonstrations to support a one-week STAR-TIDES "living-symposium" at the National Defense University from Oct 6-10, 2008.
The TIDES project (Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support) is a research effort to encourage information sharing and to develop Communities of Interest to support populations in stressed environments.These include Stabilization and Reconstruction (SSTR), Humanitarian Assistance-Disaster Relief (HADR), and Building the Capacity of Partner Nations (BPC). TIDES is one part of a broader effort called STAR (Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research). Phase I of TIDES included demonstrations in Oct-Nov 2007 at the National Defense University (NDU) and the Pentagon’s center court.
STAR-TIDES promotes affordable, sustainable, support to stressed populations—post-disaster, impoverished, or post-war, whether in a domestic and foreign context for a short- or long-term operation, with or without involvement of the military. It is an international research project to promote unity of effort among diverse organizations where there is no unity of control. As such it seeks to build bridges across boundariesamong business, civil society and government stakeholders who are working toward common goals. The principal means are: (1) trust building and social network development, (2) sharing information and “sense-making” approaches, and (3) low-cost logistic solutions.
Objectives:
Attendees have a better understanding of ways to provide affordable, sustainable, support to stressed populations—post-disaster, impoverished, or post-war
Explore new ways of collaboration between government, business, and civil society with a focus on social networking, trust building, information sharing, and the role of technology in these initiatives
Demonstration of new low-cost logistic solutions/policy issues/and other technologies that are vital to emergency relief
Gain new partners, expand network
Involve universities and high schools in local area to encourage research efforts
Activities:
MITRE's Role:
•Event Organization, Planning, and Administration
•Stakeholder Coordination and Invitation
–FEMA (Office of National Capital Region Coordination)
–State and Local EP&R Community (All Hazards Consortium)
•Knowledge Management Systems Development
–Deployable Infrastructures Taxonomy Design
–Data Systems Development (web service archive, search, and retrieval)
–Lessons Learned Capture and Data Management
•MIP Technology Demonstrations
–Dr. DJ Shyy (E535) – WiMAX RF-Planner
•Panel Discussions -- Afghanistan –
–Info/imagery sharing and Civil-military cooperation – Dr. Warner (Neal Zimmerman, v700 panel member (tentative))
Impact:
■ Leveraged small amount of money into a good return: 15 vendor participants and 120+ guests while using less than $5K government funding and $14K MITRE resources
■ Went beyond the slideshows and demonstrated real-life activity:on-site solar cooking and water filtration, etc.
■ Veteran event will be going into its 3rd year in 2009
■ Carefully maneuvered through and successfully alleviated legal and permissions related issues
Public Release No:09-1296
[Presentation]
Synthetic Biology
Primary Investigator:Dileo, John
Problems:
The continued maturation of Synthetic Biology into a field of engineering (Biological Systems Engineering) will have a significant impact on MITRE's sponsors on many levels. Over the past 3 years, this field has matured from a small group of individuals working in isolated academic institutions to a global community with government-funded programs (SynBERC), dedicated journals (Molecular Systems Biology from Nature), international meetings (Synthetic Biology 1.0 - 4.0), efforts to develop standard parts and tools for biological engineering (the BioBrick Foundation), and startup companies based on this technology (Amyris Biotechnologies). The rapid growth of this field has led to some limited successes in engineering the individual parts or subsystems of biological systems, but these activities are being pursued by groups with different research agendas and there is little effort to integrate multiple engineered components into complete solutions. Continued involvement in this field at this stage in its development presents MITRE with a real opportunity to play a leading role in defining the emerging field of Biological Systems Engineering.
Objectives:
In order to successfully capitalize on this opportunity, we propose to continue the technical efforts started under the original Synthetic Biology MSR, and to expand our involvement in the larger Synthetic Biology community. Specifically, we aim to:
• Apply advances in Synthetic Biology to provide a technical solution to a sponsor's hardproblem
• Develop the fundamental toolsand technologies needed to realize the potential of Synthetic Biology
• Leverage the MIP's investment to establish MITRE as a leader in this field.
Activities:
1. Continue the development of a cell-based system for monitoring the local environment around suspect facilities for patterns of chemicals associated with chemical weapons production.
2. Develop software tools for the modeling, simulation, design, and debugging of biological systems at the genome, proteome, and system levels.
3. Develop the experimental tools and techniques required for the fabrication and implementation of designed biological systems.
4. Publish a document that presents our vision of Biosystems Engineering.
5. Attend/present our results at conferences.
6. Serve on the BioBrick Foundation Technical Standards Working Group.
7. Sponsor a team in the international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition.
8. Establish a local Synthetic Biology community of interest.
9. Hold a Biosystems Engineering TEM to bring together the Biotechnology and Systems Engineering communities at MITRE.
Impact:
The maturation of the emerging field of Synthetic Biology into a field of engineering (Biological Systems Engineering) will have a significant impact on MITRE's sponsors on many levels. Most generally, the methods utilized during the course of this project are the technologies of choice for the development of bio-enabling technologies, whether they are biosensors, cell-based information processing, cell-based manufacturing systems, energy production, etc. Knowledge of this area is also relevant to sponsors interested in biosecurity since the techniques described here would also be used by potential adversaries to develop modified or next-generation bioweapons. By understanding this field, MITRE will be able to provide expert advice and innovative technological solutions to sponsors interested in both bio-enabling technologies and biosecurity.
Public Release No:09-0904
[Presentation]
Exhibit Date(s):May 6, May 7
System-Wide Modeling for NextGen
Primary Investigator:Kuzminski, Peter C.
Problems:
This research is intended to add capabilities to systemwideModeler, MITRE's fast-time simulation model of the U.S. National Airspace System, to better enable analyses of operational performance under the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Priorities include improvements to the airport and en route sector models, the overhaul of terminal radar approach control (TRACON) and traffic management models, and the introduction of re-routing features. In addition to implementing and validating these model enhancements, the project will improve the pre- and post-processing tool suite, with particular attention to visualization.
Objectives:
MITRE’s systemwideModeler behavior needs to be representative of NextGen operations. In particular, it must capture changes in operational performance resulting from changes to National Airspace System use, technologies, procedures, and structure. The suite of associated support tools needs to better aid the analysis of NextGen operational behavior, the preparation of simulation experiments, and the understanding of results.
Activities:
Modeling efforts will improve systemwideModeler's representation of merging and spacing, airport operations and demand management, TRACON and en route sector congestion, fleet management, and re-routing and cancellations. Software development will implement these features and continue to refactor the code to improve performance, maintainability, and ease of use. Upgrading of pre- and post-processing tools will enable better input validation, better analysis of individual elements, and custom visualization and measurement.
Impact:
Changes to systemwideModeler’s representation of flight re-planning and traffic management will position the tool well to perform a range of analyses about the NextGen timeframe. The addition of re-routing functionality and of TRACON and airspace elements will improve the model's sensitivity to critical NextGen changes and provide unique capabilities previously unavailable in any National Airspace System simulation tool. Improvement of pre- and post-processing tools will reduce turnaround times and enable analysts to focus on model behavior and results. Not only will simulation output be more quickly interpreted, but metrics will also be standardized and portrayed more effectively.
Public Release No:09-1023
[Presentation]
Exhibit Date(s):May 6, May 7
TCAP: Transforming Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Routers for Airborne Platforms
Primary Investigator:Kuhl, Peter M.
Problems:
The requirements for an airborne router are to interoperate with standard routing technology, route data over the platform's multiple links to maximize throughput and reliability, and detect and adapt to recurring link failures with minimal overhead. A COTS router cannot meet all of these requirements; however, through enhancements, it is possible to meet them and to provide a capable airborne router.
Objectives:
Improve COTS routing capabilities over terminals like TTNT for large-scale networks by enabling OSPF routing over TTNT without using GRE tunnels and prototyping a router-to-radio interface for the terminal.
Improve the interoperability of routing in a large-scale airborne network, which will be comprised of multiple routing domains, and reduce risk for the CABLE JCTD.
Activities:
The project's activities for FY09 are to collaborate with Rockwell Collins to test and verify their new OSPF routing capability for the TTNT terminal, develop a proof-of-concept prototype for a router-to-radio interface for the TTNT terminal, and address routing interoperability for large-scale networks.
In addition, we will have discussions with Cisco and Rockwell Collins about the findings from the router-to-radio prototype development to enable the transition of this capability for the airborne network.
Impact:
The result of this work will be a dynamic routing capability for airborne platforms. This improved COTS routing capability is well aligned to transition into JEFX09 and the CABLE JCTD. This work will also offer guidance to the Air Force and Navy's platform groups so they can utilize the enhanced COTS routing to develop dynamic routing for the platform.
Public Release No:09-0791
[Presentation]
Techno-Economic Analysis of the U.S. Economy
Primary Investigator:Steckley, Samuel G.
Problems:
The research will develop and apply multi-sector inter-industry (I-O) economic models to an analysis of revenue and finance issues and strategies across selected sectors where MITRE is supporting transformational programs. A number of tax, subsidy, and regulatory policies are under consideration to implement as part of national programs. They will have major economic impacts on GDP, jobs, personal income, taxes, revenues, and capital formation that must be better understood as the programs are developed and implemented.
Objectives:
The primary research objective is to develop and demonstrate an improved information base and analytical capability to analyze the tax, subsidy, revenue, finance, and regulatory issues for government policies and programs.
Activities:
Perform techno-economic analysis with inter-industry model for selected national programs that MITRE plays a central role to determine economic sustainability of programs. Economic sustainability here is defined by the programs impact on GDP, unemployment and other macro-economic measures as well as the net impact to tax revenue and outlays. The procedures will be documented. The feasibility of performing similar analysis with a more detailed regional inter-industry model will also be investigated.
Impact:
The research will lead to a new capability for MITRE in Enterprise Systems Engineering with an analytic linkage to revenue, finance, and regulatory programs to allow for efficient and credible techno-economic and benefit-cost analysis for national initiatives. It will result in better program and policy formulation at agencies, and establish a clear line of sight for MITRE programs to national challenges related to economic security, the nation’s revenue gap, and the economic sustainability of major programs. This capability will strengthen existing relationships including those with the Department of Treasury and with major programs in the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the United States Department of Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, and will support future relationships.
Public Release No:09-1129
[Presentation]
Exhibit Date(s):May 7
Technology Transfer Office (TTO)
Primary Investigator:Dizon, Ray
Exhibit Date(s):May 5, May 6, May 7
Text Extraction and Mining (TEAM)
Primary Investigator:Nazeri, Zohreh
Problems:
This project explores areas for further enhancement of a Text Extraction and Mining (TEAM) system. TEAM is a system based on the prototype developed by the Closed-Loop Link Mining MSR. The Loop prototype automates extraction of entities and events from unstructured textual data and discovers the links between the entities via an integrated system. Further, the system allows users to take advantage of other available datasets (structured or unstructured), to obtain additional information that might help with entity resolution, co-reference disambiguation, or just adding details.
Objectives:
Perform minor enhancements to the Loop analysis tools.
Provide a vehicle for sponsor outreach and demonstrations.
Activities:
Coverage: extend entity and event extraction for sponsor data (BSA suspicious activity reports, or SARs). In particular, capture SEC-filed SARs, create additional training data, and evaluate performance of banking and SEC SAR models.
Prototype: build stand-alone package for demonstrations outside of secure lab.
Outreach: present demonstrations to MITRE leadership and sponsors; give presentations at and organize TEMs.
Impact:
MITRE sponsors in a variety of domains need to analyze disparate sources of data in order to discover links between pieces of information embedded in them. The TEAM system can help with this challenging task. Examples of areas where the system could help analysts are: financial crime, tax evasion, and social network analysis.
Public Release No:09-1145
[Presentation]
Exhibit Date(s):May 5
Tracking Chat
Primary Investigator:Wellner, Benjamin R.
Exhibit Date(s):May 5
Trust and Appraisal for Resilience of Distributed Information Systems (TARDIS)
Primary Investigator:Millen, Jonathan K
Problems:
The vulnerability of our sponsors’ missions to cyber attack is amplified by the dependencies among subsystems: a successful attack on one subsystem can cripple a distributed system that depends on it. Resiliency technologies can alleviate these vulnerabilities, but we need to put them into the hands of ordinary programmers. This will help put that capability inside new projects, rather than just wrapping non-resilient products. Programmers ought to be able to incorporate resiliency-specific code adjacent to, but distinct from, their mission-specific code.
Objectives:
Past work and initial study indicates that two promising categories of resiliency features are: attestation based on trusted computing hardware, and distributed agreement algorithms. Distributed agreement algorithms allow correctly operating nodes to achieve agreement on critical data despite failures of a limited number of nodes. We will investigate the hypothesis that attestation reports can lead to improved results in a cyber attack environment.
In the first year, we will choose a set of attestation-related resiliency features and produce language or library abstractions to embody them.
Activities:
To evaluate our preliminary selection of features, we will prototype them in Erlang, a high-level language suited for distributed system coding. The sample features will include access to trusted computing hardware for platform integrity reports, an attestation protocol that uses such reports, and an enhanced distributed agreement algorithm that invokes the attestation protocol. The practicability, performance, and benefits of these features will be evaluated in the context of related mission assurance work for hardening individual nodes against subversion and for providing data resiliency with a distributed system. We are also investigating potential sponsor applications such as air tasking order generation.
Impact:
The work described here will affect how MITRE and its sponsors build distributed applications and how the requirements for such applications are written. If some products are made public as free software or through scholarly publication, they can influence research on resilience and the development of distributed applications elsewhere.
Public Release No:09-1250
[Presentation]
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