By Stuart Fox Posted 01.12.2010 at 12:07 pm 17 Comments

Do Virtual IT Administrator Opponents Dream Of Electric Jolt Cola Bottles? via Chas Andrews

As any soldier will tell you, consistent and realistic drill forms the foundation of any successful military action. But whereas an infantryman can hone his aim at a firing range, America's Internet warriors don't have a similar venue for developing their skills at cyberwar. But DARPA hopes a $51 million network simulation, complete with computer programs that behave like human targets and adversaries, will provide the perfect arena for developing the next generation of cyberwar weapons and tactics.

The simulation, called the National Cyber Range (NCR), first went public last year, but just yesterday the cash needed to get this project moving was finally doled out. Johns Hopkins received $24.8 million for the project, while Lockheed Martin walked away with $30.8 million. The Lockheed contract is significant, as its defense industry competitor Northrop Grumman actually won the Phase I grant in 2009.

According to DARPA, the NCR will "realistically replicate human behavior and frailties," and provide "realistic, sophisticated, nation-state quality offensive and defensive opposition forces." Basically, computer programs acting like real people will populate a the virtual world that the cyberwarriors will attempt to disrupt or save, depending on the mission. Paging Agent Smith...

Even more impressive than the automation of the virtual population is the size of the simulation. DARPA hopes that the NCR will be able to simulate the entire Internet, allowing soldiers to drill in virtual simulations ranging from a small scale computer virus to a World War III-sized conflict.

The project just entered Phase II testing, so there it's still going to be a wait before the NCR starts running at full capacity. In the meanwhile, let's just hope someone remembers to teach the computer how to play tic-tac-toe.

[The Register]

17 Comments

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justin_w222002
01/12/10 at 12:23 pm

Why enlist Locheed or NG for any of these...? I believe DARPA should take a look at the video game industry for a project such as this. For example add additional code for Sims... create your house and your terrorist and have him do terrorist activities... then have the anti terrorist move in next door and come over to do things in the hot tub...lol

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dman2005
01/12/10 at 12:23 pm

i cannot wait for this to go public...i might just join the military to use this

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mjfr226
01/12/10 at 1:05 pm

headshot! i agree with justin... throw in wii-like motion controls, a 3d-imax room, and the $51 million "simulation" first-person shooter...ohh... can you throw in a multiplayer feature also?

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GTO
01/12/10 at 1:21 pm

Count me in.

--GTO--

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aircows
01/12/10 at 3:20 pm

Um, people... This isn't a first person shooter type of system. This simulates a world network on which to conduct training against threats like hackers, viruses, etc. that try to damage DoD systems and networks. The whole point of the article is that infantry can go to a range to practice shooting weapons, but there hasn't been a place for cyber-security personnel to practice on the scale that they need to. This system will become their "range" and instead of shooting at targets, they will be working against simulated hackers and cyber-terrorists in different scenarios.

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justin_w222002
01/12/10 at 4:31 pm

@aircows

No one was saying that this was going to be a first person shooter, actually I believe myself specifically stated "jokingly" to use a sims game. The point being as that you don't need to spend several million dollars on a project that can so obviously be accomplished with the video game industry already. Whether it is with a XBOX controller or a keyboard this can be accomplished to help hone the cyber-security personnel's skills.

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Funktapus
01/12/10 at 5:44 pm

@justin
I don't think you understand, this is unlike anything the video game industry has done so far, this isn't a combat simulator, it's a cyber warfare simulator. Like internets and hacking.

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justin_w222002
01/12/10 at 5:59 pm

@Funktapus

I perfectly understand exactly what they are proposing. Please let me explain my reasoning.

The gaming industry already has the technologies and personnel in place to develop something like this. I liken this development to a new game. Why because thats exactly what its going to be.

There is no need to spend millions of dollars to develop something new when there is already a multi billion dollar industryu dedicated to the very thing.

The video game industry is constantly improving on Artificial Intelligence (for games) , how difficult do you think it would be for them to develop scenarios where the game hacks into a FBI database and start stealing information? Now its the soldiers job to stop this from happening track them down.

LH and NG and whomever else would have to develop the technologies to do this and recruit the personnel, then build the system... Im not saying they wont do a good job... Im just saying there is an industry already present that can easily handle this task. And that LH and NG should stick to what they do best... building bad a** airplanes that shoot lasers. :-)

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Azorus
01/13/10 at 9:40 am

well for one the people that are working on this at lh and ng have security clearances, where the gaming industry does not.

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uncleiroh13
01/13/10 at 12:10 pm

count me in

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dhurrell
01/13/10 at 1:50 pm

LH and NG will either end up hiring some experienced game designers from the gaming industry to work with thier security cleared personnel... or they will end up creating a technically correct environment; but lacking that extra something that allows a person to truly enter a game and experience it rather then watch it.

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interestingmode...
01/13/10 at 6:57 pm

This is a computer programming version of what the military uses Basic Combat Training (BCT) to do in the real world bullet stuff. Meaning it will be used to simulate the internet in a combat scenario where software is the weapon instead of ak-47's or shotguns etc... In the modern information economic world information equals power the more information you have that you can effectively use, the more powerful you are. This training ground they are talking of is supposed to act like "The Matrix" movies except that we are the controllers at this time not just the controlled victims. In effect if you watched the movie understand that they are trying to build people who can be like Neo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core <--watch this movie and pay attention to the character "DJ Qualls as Theodore Donald "Rat" Finch, a computer hacker who is widely regarded as the best in the world, crippled the FBI's database, recruited to control the flow of information on the Internet to prevent public panic." This is where people who work for the government as information protection specialists can train to be able to do what this character does in this movie. So while justin_w222002 might have a few points. He doesn't seem to grasp the true intent of this project which the government probably doesn't mind that much cause that makes it easer to keep him controlled and on the sidelines, of a much nastier global information war that has been in progress since the end of the american revolution or even before that.

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bobfrombrooklyn
01/17/10 at 3:11 pm

i believe that soon, we will only be using computers to fight wars. in that case, this will be perfect, seeing as a brute force attack on a country's-say their defense grid-could disable them, possibly to a point where they cannot communicate with their troops, or use their electronic weapons.

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sivabuzz
01/26/10 at 8:09 am

This is the good Project and Interesting! deals4now.com

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thepainfultruth
05/19/10 at 3:25 pm

Look, this is not a game. It is a serious military program that basically recreates the MATRIX. Has no one actually paid attention past all the gunfire? This would make an excellent game, true. DARPA does not games make.

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MaxNeo
09/13/10 at 2:25 pm

I am aware that I am in the matrix and that it is Jewish. Mazel Tov!

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MaxNeo
09/13/10 at 2:28 pm

Well, don't think about it just as a training mechanism/software/hardware..think about it as an afterlife or immortality. We are still slaves to dementation and ironic sach-religeous for the time being. (Spelling?- not so good with)

Cryogenics -> Matrix Universe


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