Identifying and responding to ever-evolving cyber vulnerabilities is a challenging business. Such an endeavor requires both knowledge and a dedication to excellence in order to keep up with constantly changing cyber threats. The Army has recognized a team of individuals from the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center, known as RTC, for their outstanding work in this field.
The Army honored members of RTC's Distributed Test Controlled Center team as part of its Modeling and Simulation Awards for Fiscal 2018. These awards recognize a dedication to excellence in a variety of fields in support of the warfighter. The Army M&S Award evaluation team selected 10 recipients, six teams and four individuals, for recognition from a field of 28 nominations. This year's award marks the third win for RTC in the Test and Evaluation team category.
Team members Kenneth LeSueur, Sean Millich, Mark Ebert, Jeff Poole, Geoff Sizemore and Julie Melville were responsible for developing and instantiating the first use of the Cyber Vulnerability Assessment and Test Environment. CVATE is a network environment that enables test and evaluation of materiel when faced with realistic, advanced cyber threats that are provided by independent Army or other Department of Defense agencies.
LeSueur, chief technologist in RTC's Modeling and Simulation Division, called CVATE an invaluable means of keeping up with the constantly evolving security challenges faced in a complex cyber environment.
"CVATE fills the void in the cybersecurity testing where operationally realistic scenarios stimulate a system of systems environment providing relevant network interfaces and traffic loads needed to test against advanced cyber threats," LeSueur said.
The first use of CVATE demonstrated such a concept can be utilized across Army programs. Geography is also not an obstacle as any test asset or equipment can be securely connected to CVATE from any Army developmental and operational test center.
The theme for this year's event was "Enabling Army Priorities -- Readiness and Modernization." LeSueur said CVATE supports both critical priorities.
"The testing strategies afforded by CVATE allow continuous testing of a systems cyber posture against the quickly changing threats that otherwise would be cost prohibitive," he said. As cyber threats continue to evolve, so will the CVATE program. The program is undergoing a multi-year effort that involves testing updates to the system in order to combat those threats.
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