Life-Cycle Management - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

As a group, the tested UltraLog defenses provided significant
protection from cyberattack. For the experiments conducted,
all UltraLog defenses were rated “green” (acceptable) for completely
or nearly completely defending against the intended attack.
agent trying to transmit damaging instructions
or orders.
• Unsigned or improperly signed messages were
rejected. Operational decisions rely on the accuracy of
information contained in incoming transmissions. In
UltraLog, information integrity is ensured in part by
the digital signature that accompanies incoming messages.
This experiment assessed whether or not target
agents accepted or rejected unsigned messages. Policy
was modified by Red Team hackers so that the
agents of one unit transmitted messages without signatures.
UltraLog agents successfully rejected 731 of
731 unsigned messages. UltraLog successfully defended
against agents receiving and accepting messages
of questionable origin. From an operational
perspective, logistics functions were protected.
Unsigned or Improperly Signed Code Modules
It is essential that code that is introduced into a
deployed and functioning information system be
from a trusted source. The ability of an adversary to
insert malicious code can be extremely damaging; in
UltraLog, this ability could completely compromise
operational and logistics functionality. Only code
that contains the digital signature of someone known
and trusted is supposed to be accepted and loaded
into UltraLog. This experiment demonstrated that
UltraLog was able to prevent the loading of code that
was not accompanied by a trusted digital signature.
Adaptable Security Posture
In the event of multiple security violations,
UltraLog is designed to sense the increased security
threat environment, increase the threat condition
level, and modify security defenses appropriately for
the new threat environment. A series of experiments
was conducted involving multiple attacks against the
system. These attacks included multiple invalid logins,
invalid and unsigned message transmissions, and
invalid code insertions. In each case, UltraLog detected
and prevented the disallowed activity, generated
alert messages, and increased the system’s
security posture in response to the heightened threat.
The policy enforcement infrastructure also rebuffed
denial-of-service attacks by limiting the system
interfaces available for attack.
ARMY LOGISTICIAN PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF UNITED STATES ARMY LOGISTICS
Final Analysis of UltraLog Security
As a group, the tested UltraLog defenses provided
significant protection from cyberattack. For the
experiments conducted, all UltraLog defenses were
rated “green” (acceptable) for completely or nearly
completely defending against the intended attack. The
overall security functionality of UltraLog was rated
green in recognition that significant portions of the
threat envelope had been effectively secured.
Improvements over previous years were noted in
the areas of preventing unauthorized access to information,
securing interagent communications, preventing
malicious code insertion, and preventing
unauthorized operations. Other enhancements
demonstrated that the security services are scalable
to support large distributed systems. Progress was
made in controlling unauthorized access to data and
processes operating in system memory.
Progress also was made in the system’s ability to
manage security policy and respond to changes in the
threat environment. This included the development
of templates that enhance the ability of policy
administrators to specify and modify enforceable
security policies. Overall, UltraLog’s security policy
framework and the specific policies tested successfully
deflected hacker attacks.
As it nears the end of its development cycle,
UltraLog has made significant strides in building a
security infrastructure sufficient to protect distributed
agent-based applications. Clearly, based on
assessment-derived data, the integrity and
confidentiality of the highly distributed logistics
information systems envisioned for the modern
battlefield can be protected—even from a determined
adversary. ALOG
COMMANDER JAMES C. WORKMAN, USN (RET.), IS
EMPLOYED BY LOS ALAMOS TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES, INC.,
IN STERLING, VIRGINIA. HE HOLDS A B.S. DEGREE IN
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ORE-
GON AND AN M.S. DEGREE IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
FROM THE NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL. COMMANDER
WORKMAN SERVED 20 YEARS IN THE NAVY SUPPLY CORPS,
CULMINATING IN JOINT TOURS AT THE OFFICE OF THE SEC-
RETARY OF DEFENSE AND THE DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY.
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