METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION

• US 20100042472A1
• Filed: 11/13/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forcepoint Federal Holdings LLC (Forcepoint LLC)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Scates, Joseph F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis

Abstract

A method of risk management across a mission support network is provided, including identifying a mission of the mission support network, and identifying, by a computer processor, assets of the mission support network. The assets include a mission asset to support the mission and a support asset to provide support to the mission asset. Each of the assets is characterized by a criticality index value to measure how important the asset is to a performance of the mission, and a vulnerability index value to measure a vulnerability of the asset to a threat.

Claims

1. A method of mission support comprising:

identifying a requirement to support a mission; and

identifying an infrastructure asset to support the requirement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a function to support the requirement; and

identifying a system to support the function, wherein the infrastructure asset directly supports the system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording the identified function; and

recording additional knowledge used to identify the function.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein recording the additional knowledge includes recording categories of information associated with the additional knowledge including decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the decision criteria.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the function to support the requirement is at least partially based upon the recorded decision criteria and acceptable responses.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording the identified system; and

recording additional knowledge used to identify the system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein recording the additional knowledge includes recording categories of information associated with the additional knowledge including decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the decision criteria.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the system to support the function is at least partially based upon the recorded decision criteria and acceptable responses.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording the identified infrastructure asset; and

recording additional knowledge used to identify the infrastructure asset.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein recording the additional knowledge includes recording categories of information associated with the additional knowledge including decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the decision criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying the infrastructure asset to support the system is at least partially based upon the recorded decision criteria and acceptable responses.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the function is at least partially based upon an identified sector to support the function.

13. A method of mission support comprising:

identifying a requirement of a mission;

identifying a function to support the requirement;

identifying a system to support the function; and

identifying an infrastructure asset to support the system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

recording the identified function;

recording function decision criteria used to identify the function and acceptable responses associated with the function decision criteria;

recording the identified system;

recording system decision criteria used to identify the system and acceptable responses associated with the system decision criteria;

recording the identified infrastructure asset; and

recording infrastructure asset decision criteria used to identify the infrastructure asset and acceptable responses associated with the infrastructure asset decision criteria.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein

recording the function includes saving the function to a mission support rules database;

recording the function decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the function decision criteria includes saving the function decision criteria and acceptable responses to the mission support rules database;

recording the system includes saving the system to the mission support rules database;

recording the system decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the system decision criteria includes saving the system decision criteria and acceptable responses to the mission support rules database;

recording the infrastructure asset includes saving the infrastructure asset to the mission support rules database; and

recording the infrastructure asset decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the infrastructure asset decision criteria includes saving the infrastructure asset decision criteria and acceptable responses to the mission support rules database.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the requirement is a plurality of requirements of the mission and further comprising:

building a mission support network to support the plurality of requirements of the mission using the mission support rules database to identify the function, system, and infrastructure asset to support at least a portion of the requirements,

wherein the mission support network comprises at least one identified infrastructure asset.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein building the mission support network includes using the saved function decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the function decision criteria to identify the function, system decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the system decision criteria to identify the system, and infrastructure asset decision criteria and acceptable responses associated with the infrastructure asset decision criteria to identify the infrastructure asset.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the infrastructure asset is a plurality of infrastructure assets, a first portion of which directly supports the mission, and a second portion of which supports other infrastructure assets.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the infrastructure assets is characterized by a criticality index value to measure how important the at least one infrastructure asset is to a performance of the mission, and a vulnerability index value to measure a vulnerability of the at least one infrastructure asset to a threat on the mission.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one identified first infrastructure asset is from a first sector and at least one identified second infrastructure asset is from a second sector.