GE Researchers Working to Improve Cyber Resiliency of Critical Military and Industrial Systems

• Awarded up to $4.9 million through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Cyber Assured Systems Engineering (CASE) program to create the Verification Evidence and Resilient Design in Anticipation of Cybersecurity Threats (VERDICT) tool
• GE’s VERDICT will model, analyze and recommend design improvements to strengthen the resiliency and protection of critical infrastructure such as power and aircraft systems
• Tool will assess a system’s vulnerabilities, recommend new defenses to combat them and forecast the likelihood of future attacks

NISKAYUNA, NY – April 6, 2020 – GE Research, the central technology development arm for the General Electric Company (GE), today announced it is leading an up to $4.9 million project through the Defense Advanced Research Agency’s (DARPA) Cyber Assured Systems Engineering (CASE) program, to develop VERDICT to assess and strengthen cyber protections for military and other industrial systems.

DARPA’s CASE program is focused on supporting new technologies that strengthen cyber protections for the embedded computer systems that manage or control critical infrastructure, vehicles, smart devices and military systems.  The threats to these types of systems have grown, as attempts to attack these systems have become more sophisticated in nature. 

Kit Siu, a Senior Engineer in the Research Lab’s Controls and Optimization team, and Abha Moitra, a Principal Scientist in the Artificial Intelligence Group, are leading GE’s CASE project, which involves development of a comprehensive toolkit that can assess a given computer system’s vulnerabilities and prescribe the best defense measures to shore them up.  Siu recently demonstrated GE’s technology for Naval Information Warfare Systems (NAVWAR) personnel in San Diego, California.

“A key objective of VERDICT is to deliver a thorough cyber threat assessment that not only flags a system’s vulnerabilities but also recommends the best defense measures to address them,” Siu said. “This could work across many types of systems, from military platforms like a ship or aircraft to critical infrastructure like a power plant or wind farm.”

Siu said, “Power systems, like military systems, often are controlled and operated separately from the Cloud to insulate or reduce their susceptibility to cyber threats. But that doesn’t mean someone can’t get to your system. With the technology toolkit we’re developing, we will be able see the potential vulnerabilities more clearly and enable additional measures to strengthen protections.”

Siu and Moitra are collaborating with GE Aviation Systems and University of Iowa on this project. The Aviation Systems business is providing domain expertise for cyber analysis on commercial and military aircraft, and the University of Iowa is providing fundamental research in the area of cyber security and formal methods. By the end of the program, the team will deliver the VERDICT as an open source toolkit that may be used to safeguard critical infrastructure.

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