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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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23 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

IT Security Support for the Spaceport Command Control Systems Development Ground Support Development Operations

Security is one of the most if not the most important areas today. After the several attacks on the United States, security everywhere has heightened from airports to the communication among the military branches legionnaires. With advanced persistent threats (APT's) on the rise following Stuxnet, government branches and agencies are required, more than ever, to follow several standards, policies and procedures to reduce the likelihood of a breach. Attack vectors today are very advanced and are going to continue to get more and more advanced as security controls advance. This creates a need for networks and systems to be in an updated and secured state in a launch control system environment. FISMA is a law that is mandated by the government to follow when government agencies secure networks and devices. My role on this project is to ensure network devices and systems are in compliance with NIST, as outlined in FISMA. I will achieve this by providing assistance with security plan documentation and collection, system hardware and software inventory, malicious code and malware scanning, and configuration of network devices i.e. routers and IDS's/IPS's. In addition, I will be completing security assessments on software and hardware, vulnerability assessments and reporting, and conducting patch management and risk assessments. A guideline that will help with compliance with NIST is the SANS Top 20 Critical Controls. SANS Top 20 Critical Controls as well as numerous security tools, security software and the conduction of research will be used to successfully complete the tasks given to me. This will ensure compliance with FISMA and NIST, secure systems and a secured network. By the end of this project, I hope to have carried out the tasks stated above as well as gain an immense knowledge about compliance, security tools, networks and network devices, as well as policies and procedures.

security↗
NASA NTRS2013

IT Security Support for Spaceport Command and Control System

During the fall 2013 semester, I worked at the Kennedy Space Center as an IT Security Intern in support of the Spaceport Command and Control System under the guidance of the IT Security Lead Engineer. Some of my responsibilities included assisting with security plan documentation collection, system hardware and software inventory, and malicious code and malware scanning. Throughout the semester, I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of security related projects. However, there are three projects in particular that stand out. The first project I completed was updating a large interactive spreadsheet that details the SANS Institutes Top 20 Critical Security Controls. My task was to add in all of the new commercial of the shelf (COTS) software listed on the SANS website that can be used to meet their Top 20 controls. In total, there are 153 unique security tools listed by SANS that meet one or more of their 20 controls. My second project was the creation of a database that will allow my mentor to keep track of the work done by the contractors that report to him in a more efficient manner by recording events as they occur throughout the quarter. Lastly, I expanded upon a security assessment of the Linux machines being used on center that I began last semester. To do this, I used a vulnerability and configuration tool that scans hosts remotely through the network and presents the user with an abundance of information detailing each machines configuration. The experience I gained from working on each of these projects has been invaluable, and I look forward to returning in the spring semester to continue working with the IT Security team.

computer security↗
DOE OSTI2024

Trends in Cybersecurity Threats to Clean Energy

As deployments of clean energy generation and storage assets continue to grow, the increased attack surface creates a greater risk for cyber threats, but is clean energy truly a target for cyber adversaries? This poster will present research on the trends in cyber incidents that have affected clean energy companies and assets as well as the trends in disclosed and exploited vulnerabilities. From a series of ransomware attacks on European wind manufacturers, to vulnerabilities exploited in solar assets to turn controllers into botnets, to attacks on communication infrastructure that have resulted in extended outages of remote control and monitoring, we explore the techniques used and the impacts to the clean energy sector. Key takeaways include understanding of how OT-focused malware is becoming more flexible and more destructive, how known vulnerabilities are being exploited, the growing number of IT and OT attacks that use built in tools and functionalities. Additionally, we highlight the presumed motivations and targeted sectors for various identified cyber adversaries. Viewers will leave with an understanding of how recent headlines fit into the development of cyberattack trends and what preventions they may need to take to protect against increasingly popular tactics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Open Source Intelligence for Cybersecurity Events via Twitter Data

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is largely regarded as a necessary component for cybersecurity intelligence gathering to secure network systems. With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing usage of social media, like Twitter, we have a unique opportunity to obtain and aggregate information from social media. In this study, we propose an AI-based scheme capable of automatically pulling information from Twitter, filtering out security-irrelevant tweets, performing natural language analysis to correlate the tweets about each cybersecurity event (e.g., a malware campaign), and validating the information. This scheme has many applications, such as providing a means for security operators to gain insight into ongoing events and helping them prioritize vulnerabilities to deal with. To give examples of the possible uses, we present three case studies demonstrating the event discovery and investigation processes. We also examine the potential of OSINT for identifying the network protocols associated with specific events, which can aid in the mitigation procedures by informing operators if the vulnerability is exploitable given their system’s network configurations.

Dale, Dakota↗
DOE OSTI2026

Automated Generation of Graph-based Cyber Threat Intel

With the advancement of AI technology and tools, specifically in the cybersecurity domain, both cyber defenders and threat actors are continuously adapting the use of these capabilities to expedite their operations. With this phenomenon, threat intelligence that is up to date, refreshable, and has relevant context to a specific threat becomes more and more important as it enables cybersecurity professionals to gain insight into relevant data and relationships to guide their operations. This project enables users to frequently aggregate threat intelligence from various sources, such as vendor vulnerability advisories affecting critical infrastructure, malware reports, and adversary writeups into a centralized, standardized database. The project utilizes the Structured Threat Intelligence eXpression (STIX) for a standardized, shareable threat intelligence data format and Neo4j as a graph database solution to store STIX nodes and relationships. Initial results of the project include datasets of over 8,000 nodes and 20,000 relationships extracted from over 500 data sources that have been released within the past month.

Threat Intelligence↗