Security in NATO collective mission training - Problem analysis and solutions

We never fight alone, so we should train together! With missions being joint and combined, we also need to train that way. Given limited budgets and available resources, distributed simulation is rapidly becoming a necessity for collective mission training. However, due to the characteristics of mission simulations the protection of classified information (e.g. scenarios, weapon and sensor capabilities or doctrines) becomes a serious security challenge. As part of the NATO RTO program a new modelling and simulation working group has been formed in 2010, MSG-080, to look at this topic. Members include Sweden, UK, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA. This paper describes in detail the security challenges which we face and analyses the technical characteristics of simulators in relation to the information that needs to be protected. Based on these findings the effectiveness of different identified security solutions to the security challenges at hand can be further explored. Security solutions which are considered include data diodes, cross domain solutions (labelling and release mechanisms) and Multi-Level Security. The challenge is to prevent information leakage without compromising the primary training objectives. By approaching the stated security challenges in an integral manner we aim to find solutions which can provide adequate performance and which are also acceptable for accreditation authorities