DHS-Science-and-Technology-PNT

CHALLENGE: SAFEGUARDING THE NATION’S CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Organizations are facing more diverse, sophisticated threats— cyber, physical, technological, or natural—that may have cross-sector impacts. The evolving risk landscape necessitates an evolved response. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) provides research and development (R&D) to ensure the security and resiliency of critical infrastructure (CI). CI consists of the physical and cyber systems and assets that are so vital to the United States (U.S.) that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on our physical or economic security or public health or safety. The nation's CI provides the essential services that underpin American society.

S&T CREATES PROGRAM TO MEET DHS MISSION CHALLENGES

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act became Public Law #117-58 on Nov. 15, 2021, and tasked DHS S&T to conduct CI security and resilience research, development, test, and evaluation for the following areas:

1. Planning tools for conducting risk assessment ratings for special events;
2. Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and geo-magnetic disturbance (GMD) resilience capabilities;
3. Positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities;
4. Evaluation of “soft target” security for public safety, including countering improvised explosive device events and protection of U.S. CI;
5. Research supporting security testing capabilities relating to telecommunications equipment, industrial control systems (ICS), and open-source software.

IMPACT OF CISRR

S&T has created the Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Research (CISRR) Program to oversee activities performed under the Infrastructure Act and report to Congress on the progress of CISRR R&D activities.

CISRR will accomplish strategic objectives defined through S&T and DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency coordination:

-Ensure effective physical security at Special Event Assessment Rating events;

-Improve our understanding of the effects of EMP/GMD events on communications infrastructure;

-Work with industry to fully understand the impacts of new PNT threats and resources for industry adoption;

-Enhance soft target and crowded places security across the spectrum of prevention, protection, response, and mitigation. This includes strengthening physical security through capability advancements and countering improvised explosive devices;

-Enhance the interoperability, integrity, reliability, and security of critical communication systems for DHS Components through the promotion and use of standards-based solutions;

-Leverage advanced methods and capabilities to inform the cybersecurity of legacy and bleeding-edge ICS systems from network-based cyber-attacks;

-Understand the challenges and risks facing CI related to the use of open-source software and develop capabilities that will foster a more informed, resilient community that is able to mitigate security vulnerabilities and operational risk.

IMPROVING AND STANDARDIZING POSITIONING, NAVIGATION, AND TIMING RESILIENCY

In an ever-evolving landscape where multi-PNT ecosystem attack surfaces are larger, the incorporation of PNT dependencies into future technologies are increasingly interdependent, and the scale of impacts extend to be more widespread and longer-lasting, it is more critical than ever that the U.S. government focus on improving resiliency to PNT threats. Accurate PNT is a necessity for many critical infrastructure (CI) sectors. Precision timing is one aspect that is particularly important, with one microsecond level or better synchronization often being required by infrastructure systems such as electric grids, communication networks, and financial institutions. Currently, the primary source of distributed, accurate timing information is through the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, GPS’ space-based signals are low power and unencrypted, making them susceptible to both intentional and unintentional disruption.

To address these vulnerabilities to CI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) PNT Program focuses on six areas:

1. Vulnerability Assessment
2. Standards Development
3. Promotion of Mitigation Techniques
4. Identifying and Assessing Emerging Technologies
5. Outreach and Engagement
6. Developing New Concepts, Techniques, Technologies and Standards.

VULNERABILITY AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Understanding, validating, and characterizing how current and future critical infrastructure operations degrade and fail in response to progressively challenging disruptions threat scenarios, is essential to better understanding vulnerabilities at the end-user equipment level. S&T will work with Critical Infrastructure Owners and Operators (CIO&O) to plan and conduct testing scenarios that will help characterize their behavior under various scenarios and identify key vulnerabilities.

MITIGATION TECHNIQUES & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Mitigations range from implementing best practices to developing improved, more secure hardware. Examples include: improving situational awareness by developing the capability to detect and automatically alert users of jamming or spoofing events, working with equipment manufacturers to ensure newer product lines are more robust against existing threats; and developing new antenna designs optimized to minimize jamming and spoofing effects on GPS receivers.

STANDARDS ASSESSMENT FOR INDUSTRY

S&T will work with experts throughout PNT-related subsectors to develop a set of standards frameworks, and assessment processes to create scalable, secure, and resilient PNT services for industry. This program will conduct outreach to stakeholders, such as equipment manufacturers and CI owners and operators, vendors, and end-users, to educate them on threats, vulnerabilities, impacts, and mitigations—a crucial part of this effort. This will allow S&T to lead an effort to develop a conformance framework and resilience standards for a complex world of threats.