NORTH CHELMSFORD, Ma. - Mar. 18, 2005 - The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) has identified "Modeling and Testbeds for New Technologies" as one of ten cyber security research priorities for the nation, in its newly-published report to the President, "Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization." The report asserts that a "paucity of realistic models and testbeds available for exercising the latest technologies in a real-world environment" poses a barrier to the rapid development of new cyber security products, and urges that efforts to promote network modeling and simulation testbeds be expanded.
Existing federally-sponsored network testbeds would include the DETER project, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security.
Realistic system and network traffic is the final critical component in providing a useful modeling and test environment, especially where, as with DETER, the research testbed is necessarily isolated from real traffic and the open Internet, to remove any risk of malicious code and simulated attacks from affecting outside systems. Skaion's Traffic Generation System (TGS), developed over the course of the company's information assurance work in support of a number of federal agencies, has been used to provide such realistic traffic. The TGS was used in last year's Air Force Research Lab "Hackfest" exercise, and is slated to be used again in the 2005 effort later this year.
About the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC)
The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) was authorized by Congress as a Federal Advisory Committee in the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (P. L. 102-194), as amended by the Next Generation Internet Act of 1998 (P. L. 105-305). The Committee provides the President with expert, independent advice on maintaining America's preeminence in advanced information technologies, including such critical elements of the national infrastructure as high-performance computing, largescale networking, and high-assurance software and systems design.
A Web page for the PITAC, including a link to the Cyber Security report, is here: http://www.nitrd.gov/pitac/
About Skaion
Skaion is an information security technology and services company. Its area of expertise is in simulating real-world threats to information systems, modeling attacks, and evaluating defenses. Skaion's technologies synthesize realistic user and network behavior to test working systems, design new defenses, and conduct innovative research. Skaion principals have extensive experience in computer system security, including in both the U.S. military and the private sector. More information is available at www.skaion.com
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