ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION, Md.—Cyber and network security products that Boeing [BA] developed internally and introduced in the past two years are increasingly gaining acceptance with customers in the United States and internationally as service offerings, a company official said recently.
Boeing introduced its Cyber Range In a Box (CRIAB) and Enterprise Network Sentinel (ENS) in the past 18 to 24 months, the latter product with the intention that it would be sold as a product. But Boeing is seeing significant demand for both of these as a service, Bryan Palma, vice president of the Secure Infrastructure Group with the Network and Space Systems segment of Boeing’s Defense business, said at a briefing here for reporters. Palma leads the company’s cyber security efforts.
The CRIAB is built into a small airline-type container and is easily portable for shipping to the field or a corporate headquarters to conduct a wide range of cyber security training, from Red Team and Blue Team exercises to practicing and refining network security with varying parameters. The system safely simulates an organization’s network and can just be “reset” to do it again, Palma said.
Boeing introduced the CRIAB as an alternative to the traditional cyber ranges, such as one the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) manages in Florida. While those ranges offer some high end capabilities that CRIAB doesn’t, they’re expensive to maintain and expensive for their government customers to visit and use.
With the CRIAB, exercises can last hours or weeks, depending on the users needs, and can be done as frequently as a customer demands, be it quarterly, semi-annually, annually or other, Palma said. When a training period is over, the CRIAB essentially can be closed up and shipped back to Boeing.
The ENS, which Boeing originally developed as a product to sell, is being used mainly by customers as a service to help them assess their network vulnerabilities. The service includes the proprietary software as well as Boeing subject matter experts that know the threats and “can offer new information to our customers,” Palma said.
The ENS can do advanced anomaly-based detection, real-time network forensics, advanced malware detection, threat and vulnerability correlation, and ultimately a security operations workflow that enables the types of remedial actions that need to be done, Palma said. The security assessments can be done in a couple of weeks and Boeing “always” finds vulnerabilities that a customer wasn’t aware of and then helps them prioritize steps to a solution, he says.
Existing anti-virus software technology offered by companies such as Symantec [SYMC] is good at preventing 60 to 65 percent of known threats, but Boeing’s products and service offerings help organizations better grapple with the unknown, Palma said.
The ENS is also easily portable and like the CRIAB is finding success with customers internationally, Palma said. Boeing’s international customers for its range of cyber products and services that go beyond just the CRIAB and ENS include regulated industries, governments and commercial customers seeking enterprise solutions, Palma said.
The Middle East and Asia are particularly attractive growth markets for cyber security, he said. Boeing is also teamed with Japan’s Sojitz Corp. to offer cyber security solutions–including CRIAB, ENS and deep packet inspection technologies–in that country to a range of customers.
While the United States is entering a constrained period for government spending, including for defense and security, Palma said the overall outlook for cyber-related business is strong given the diversified customer base in defense, security, international, and commercial markets.
He said the oft-cited 10 percent compound annual growth rate for cyber remains applicable, adding that “There is more work than there are qualified people.”
Boeing conducted the briefing from its Cyber Engagement Center (CEC), which is located near the National Security Agency and opened in October 2011, to demonstrate cyber solutions for its customers and to monitor its own far flung computer networks. The company also does cyber security research and development at the CEC, he said.
Since the opening, Boeing has had 1,500 visitors pass through the CEC, Palma said.