MAKING COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS MORE FLEXIBLE AND RESPONSIVE

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)

The UK security operating environment is becoming increasingly complex with multiple, rapidly-forming coalitions of organisations with differing security classifications. Within this arena, there will always be the need for critical data sharing between key players in real time, with high assurance information transfer between security domains.

Therefore, communication and information systems need to be much more flexible and responsive to this fluid, fast-changing operational landscape.

The Ministry of Defence has a pressing need to:

• Reduce the configuration time and management overhead of CIS;
• Reduce the size, weight and power of the system;
• Reduce system complexity to minimise training for end users and maintenance professionals.

What’s more, the communications and information systems deployed by the MOD need to provide access to many different operational environments, running at different security classifications.

To investigate these challenges, the MOD recently carried out a concept demonstrator programme called PANDORA to remove the risk from future equipment programmes.

In order to access the differing security classifications covered by the PANDORA concept demonstrator, the MOD needed to enhance the security aspects of the PANDORA node. This became known as the PANDORA security enabling enhancements project, which looked into the MOD’s need for High Assurance Guards and Segregated Browse Down.

To deliver the required security enhancements Nexor worked with L3 TRL on a Chat Guard, a Tracks Guard and a Segregated Browse Down capability that allows users in the SECRET domain to interact with applications in other domains.