Proactive Cyber Situation Awareness via High Performance Computing

Allan B. Wollaber, Jaime Peña, Benjamin Blease, Leslie Shing, Kenneth Alperin, Serge Vilvovsky, Pierre C. Trepagnier, Neal Wagner, Leslie Leonard

Abstract: Cyber situation awareness technologies have largely been focused on present-state conditions, with limited abilities to forward-project nominal conditions in a contested environment. We demonstrate an approach that uses data-driven, high performance computing (HPC) simulations of attacker/defender activities in a logically connected network environment that enables this capability for interactive, operational decision making in real time. Our contributions are three-fold: (1) we link live cyber data to inform the parameters of a cybersecurity model, (2) we perform HPC simulations and optimizations with a genetic algorithm to evaluate and recommend risk remediation strategies that inhibit attacker lateral movement, and (3) we provide a prototype platform to allow cyber defenders to assess the value of their own alternative risk reduction strategies on a relevant timeline. We present an overview of the data and software architectures, and results are presented that demonstrate operational utility alongside HPC-enabled runtimes.