British Military Aim To Reduce Their Attack Surface
Uploaded on 2021-08-25 in GOVERNMENT-Defence, FREE TO VIEW
With nation-state cyber-attacks becoming more frequent and disastrous, there is growing pressure on the UK to invest in new forms of technological warfare to counter these threats. Britain's defence sector presents a large target area for cyber attackers to penetrate and disrupt UK military operations. Now, the British military have decided they need to accelerate the introduction of next generation technologies, both hardware and software and phase out cyber vulnerabilities in current computer networks in order to reduce the UK defence sector's exposure to cyber attack.
Military networks and systems are becoming more complex and interconnected and with commercial and civilian infrastructure. However, as attacks become more sophisticated, with potentially more impact on military operations, identifying, selecting and carrying out cyber defence responses rapidly is now essential.
The UK’s defence sector currently has a large, integrated network of legacy security technologies giving malicious actors a substantial and diverse attack surface to aim at, and the scheme will supposedly “accelerate next-generation hardware and software technologies” to address vulnerabilities in networks and systems.
The UK Defence Ministry (MoD) is interested in identifying and accelerating next generation hardware and software technologies to reduce the vulnerabilities within current and future computer networks and systems, focusing particularly on operational technologies. In recognition of this, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is launching a new Innovation Focus Area (IFA) called 'Reducing the Cyber Attack Surface', with the aim of developing technologies that reduce the potential for cyber attacks on Ministry of Defence (MOD) systems and platforms.
The MOD is looking for technologies that:
- Intelligently apply technologies that significantly reduce the opportunity for cyber attack.
- Effectively raise the barrier to entry for adversaries and providing greater confidence and a level of assurance against cyber-enabled attack.
- Are novel and applicable across a whole “class” of attack surface rather than solutions tailored to a specific threat.
This IFA is being run on behalf of Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and Defence Science and Technology (DST) and seeks proposals that enable greater confidence and a level of assurance in military systems against cyber-enabled attack. “The MoD has embraced a strategy of securing by design, with transparency being integral for identifying areas for improvement in the development process,” said Christine Maxwell, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the MoD.
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