Secure Decisions

Under contract to the Department of Homeland Security, a research team at Secure Decisions is working on methods to reduce or remediate software vulnerabilities introduced when software is built. Northport,  NY  February 16, 2010 "Software is a mature discipline, yet more than 98 percent of all PCs have one or more vulnerable programs, and in the US there are 2.7 billion programs open for attack."  That was the startling fact cited by Secure Decisions in their proposal for a recently awarded project with the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.  Secure Decisions, a division of Applied Visions, has been awarded the first phase of the DHS research contract under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The project addresses the problem of vulnerabilities in software systems that can be exploited to attack information [...]

A paper on the Mission Impact of Cyber Events authored by a team of Secure Decisions researchers will be presented at the 5th International Conference on Information Warfare and Security. Northport, NY  January 7, 2010 A paper authored by a team of Secure Decisions researchers has been accepted for presentation at the Fifth International Conference on Information Warfare and Security (ICIW)  to be held at the Air Force Institute of  Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The presentation by Anita D'Amico, Laurin Buchanan, John Goodall and Paul Walczak at the April 2010 conference is titled "Mission Impact of Cyber Events: Scenarios and Ontology to Express the Relationships between Cyber Assets, Missions and Users." A description of the ICIW conference goals was provided by the organizers: "Information warfare and computer security are at the forefront of [...]

The 2009 Military Communications Conference (MILCOM) was the setting for a presentation by Secure Decisions entitled "CAMUS: Automatically Mapping Cyber Assets to Missions and Users." Beneath the banner of this year's theme "The Challenge of Convergence," the annual MILCOM conference featured military, government and homeland security specialists. Northport, NY October 9, 2009 - Progress to date on the Secure Decisions research project CAMUS was chronicled at the annual 2009 Military Communications Conference in Boston.  The paper titled "CAMUS: Automatically Mapping Cyber Assets to Missions and Users" was presented to an audience representing military, homeland security and government representatives.   The project, Cyber Assets to Missions and Users (CAMUS),  includes methods and associated software to assist in identifying which missions may be impacted when one or more cyber assets is compromised. The conference, which included both classified [...]

A white paper authored by General (ret) Ron Keys and Larry McKee identified Secure Decisions for its development of cyber-situational awareness software. September 2009 A white paper authored by Ron Keys and Larry McKee proposes a different approach to improve situation awareness for cyber defense.  In their paper titled "Concept for Possible Cyberspace Shared Situational Awareness Joint Concept Technology Demonstration," Keys and McKee argue that most current approaches are focused on technology rather than processes.  They propose to develop a demonstration based on "processes (e.g., C2, response, analysis)" that would include "integration of existing network sensor data, defining data standards and processes for information sharing, and building relationships among national and international government, industry and academia stakeholders." The authors identify as potential partners several organizations currently engaged in shared situation awareness collaboration. One of these [...]

The American Psychological Association's "Monitor on Psychology" magazine is a print publication distributed to APA members. The September 2009 issue includes a report featuring extended quotations from Dr. D'Amico's testimony before Congress on preventing cyber attacks. Dr. Anita D'Amico's testimony before the U.S. House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Education last June is the subject of a recent APA story. Appearing in the September 2009 (Vol 40:8) issue of Monitor, the APA's Geoff Mumford reported on Dr. D'Amico's attempt to underscore "that psychology must play a key role in the evolution of cyber security."  Mumford, who directs the APA's Science Government Relations Office, includes several specific recommendations D'Amico made to the Committee. The story concludes with the hope that conferences such as the National Academy of Sciences July 2009 workshop would facilitate the [...]