The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology (DHS S&T) Directorate has developed a framework on the security of position, navigation and timing systems when used to provide timing information for the power grid and communication networks.
The Resilient PNT Conformance Framework is intended to serve as a reference for infrastructure operators in selecting secure PNT equipment, DHS said Tuesday. S&T built the framework on stakeholder input and plans to have it publicly released before the year ends.
PNT systems present more attack surfaces as the number of PNT sources continues to increase. The directorate said isolation between PNT sources would help mitigate attacks.
“A key concept in the conformance framework is recognition that one-hundred percent perfect security does not exist,” said Ernest Wong, technical manager at S&T. “Therefore, while it’s important to prevent threats from entering our systems, it’s just as important to understand what happens when systems fail and how to recover from them," Wong added.
DHS provided an eight-page PDF that previews the framework's levels.
Potomac Officers Club recently hosted its Ensuring PNT Superiority on the Future Battlefield, to showcase the experts across the private and public sectors and how manage the reliance on PNT and how it has created an attractive point of attack which adversaries will increasingly target.
If you missed the event, you can still register to watch the footage in Potomac Officers Club’s Event Archive.
