MeerCAT Overview
Mission-critical computing assets need to be tracked, managed, positioned, and secured with the same commitment afforded human resources and critical equipment. Decision-makers responsible for achieving organizational missions typically know where their key non-computing resources are, what tasks and functions those resources support, The goal of the MeerCAT project is to provide decision-makers with this information through a unified, big-picture view of the status of their cyber assets and the impact of that status on mission, whether they are vulnerable to malicious or non-malicious failures, and even with whom they have recently come in contact. They need to extend this awareness to fixed and mobile cyber assets such as computing hardware, software applications, databases, and electronically-supplied information. Such awareness will support the impact assessment of losing a cyber asset, and the positioning of other assets for continuity of operations.
MeerCAT: A Sample Use Case
As an example of how MeerCAT might be used, consider a counter-terrorism mission during which a network of mobile computing assets are used to support surveillance and real-time identity recognition.
The mission commander’s goal in this scenario would be to ensure that all assets are mission-ready. He or she needs situational awareness to support this goal. Are the assets in place and are they secure from a compromise that could endanger the mission? The commander consults MeerCAT’s integrated displays to see:
- Location Are the cyber assets in the correct deployment position? If their current location is not available, where were they the last three times they were detected?
- Vulnerability Are there any rogue access points in the area? Any signs of intrusion attempts?
- Communication Patterns How much communication is taking place between the mission-critical cyber assets? Is any data being sent to or received from an unknown entity?
- Task-dependency If compromised, how critical is this component to achieving mission success? Can the mission proceed without it?
MeerCAT will provide visible answers to these questions in an intuitive visual form, with varying levels of detail depending upon whether the user needs global awareness, or details about the individual nodes and security events.
