Dr. Anita D'Amico to Present Security Visualization Solution to See Wireless Threats to Battlefield and Commercial Networks

NORTHPORT, NY, August 15, 2008 - Dr. Anita D’Amico, Director of the Secure Decisions Division of Applied Visions, Inc., has been invited to participate on the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) panel at the 2008 SBIR Beyond Phase II Conference hosted by the Department of Defense. At the DARPA Panel session entitled "Maturing Technologies through Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, and Ownership", Dr. D’Amico will discuss Secure Decisions’ close collaboration with Department of Defense and commercial security consultants in the development of MeerCAT™, a visualization tool to depict risks from wireless assets to an organization or mission. Dr. D’Amico will join Susan Nichols, Small Business Program Director at DARPA, and other distinguished members of the panel at the September 4th 2008 session being held in Palm Desert, CA.

Under a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funded by DARPA, Secure Decisions has been developing MeerCAT (Mobile Cyber Asset Tracks) to help users analyze data acquired from wireless discovery and other security tools. MeerCAT arms users with a set of integrated 2D and 3D visualization tools to more efficiently distinguish trusted from rogue wireless cyber assets. By depicting the location and connection patterns of potentially threatening mobile assets, MeerCAT improves the visibility of risks to critical networks. The MeerCAT visualization system is currently undergoing testing in DoD and commercial operational environments.

As Director of Secure Decisions since its conception in 2000, Dr. D’Amico has led the company’s innovative research and product development in security visualization. She has been dedicated to improving the performance of cyber defenders through visualization, applying over 20 years of R&D experience and expertise as a human factors psychologist and an information security specialist. Dr. D’Amico has published dozens of papers on security visualization, and holds a patent in the field. Prior to joining Applied Visions, Dr. D’Amico was founder and head of the Information Warfare team at Northrop Grumman, where she led the effort to develop a system for forecasting cyber attacks on military networks. Dr. D’Amico holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychology from Adelphi University with a focus on Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology.

Related Links
To learn more about MeerCAT, visit www.securedecisions.com/meercat.

To learn more about the 2008 SBIR Beyond Phase II Conference, visit www.beyondphaseii.com.

For more information, please visit www.avi.com and securedecisions.avi.com.

Press Contact
Dr. Anita D’Amico
631-754-4920 Ext 121
anitad@securedecisions.avi.com

By Alice Lipowicz
Published on August 13, 2008

The Homeland Security Department today awarded $11.7 million in grants for cybersecurity research to 13 recipients from industry and academia.

The department’s Science and Technology Directorate made some awards to focus research and development on botnets and malware, composable and scalable secure systems, cybersecurity metrics and data anonymization tools. Other awards will be used for research on insider threat detection and mitigation, Internet tomography and topography; network data visualization for information assurance; process control system security and routing security management tools, DHS said.

Some recipients are Applied Visions, Inc. of Northport, N.Y.; Computer Associates Inc. of Islandia, N..Y.; Colorado State University and Digital Bond Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The others are Georgia Tech Research Corp.; IBM Corp.; ITT/Dolphin Technology; Johns Hopkins University; Packet Clearing House Inc.; Sandia National Laboratories; Secure64 Software Corp. of Greenwood Village, Colo.; the University of California-San Diego and Washington State University.

"The work conducted by these awardees will drive the technologies and best practices needed to strengthen our nation’s cybersecurity," Douglas Maughan, cybersecurity research program manager of the directorate’s Command, Control and Interoperability Division, said in a news release.

The Secure Decisions division of Applied Visions, Inc. will develop a prototype training system that provides entry-level Computer Network Defense (CND) analysts with the ability to learn fundamental concepts and practice their skills, within a compelling environment that offers network simulation and a gaming interface. The system will educate, train and evaluate students. Computer Based Training (CBT) will be used to educate students in basic concepts. Virtual vignettes will be used to train them in the application of those concepts and hone their skills within practical exercises. Automated scoring will support student evaluation. Because this training environment blends CBT with simulated scenarios, we refer to our system as SimBLEND - the Simulation-Based Learning Environment for Network Defense.

SimBLEND will be designed to interface with network simulations so that the student can experience new simulation-driven scenarios, with varying levels of complexity and difficulty, throughout the training experience. The system will also incorporate existing learning management technology to automatically score performance, track progress, and recommend training modules for remediation or advancement.

Secure Decisions and our parent company Applied Visions, Inc. have significant expertise to bring to this project: deep knowledge of CND; direct access to CND analysts, students and instructors within the DoD and industry; first-hand experience in adapting gaming technology to DoD applications; a corporate history in modeling and simulation; and the expertise in graphics and visualization needed for creating realistic synthetic environments. We also have a proven track record of being able to transition technology from the laboratory to the military and commercial operational environments.

Our subcontractor Distributed Infinity has developed the Cyber Attack Prediction System (CAPS) system, an interactive tool, based on game theory, designed to teach somewhat experienced CND analysts how to recognize and defend against cyber attacks. They will provide our project with techniques for implementing dynamically adaptable attack/defend strategies based on game-theoretic models; and they will use their CAPS experience to support SimBLEND’s scoring methodology.