ManTech’s Secure Tactical Edge Platform (ST3P™)
Bringing Secure Cloud Computing to the Tactical Edge
With new threats evolving daily, maintaining information dominance at the tactical edge presents a persistent challenge. This challenge is only exacerbated for many of our key federal customers. First, many legacy networks were designed for yesterday’s cyber environment and thus have not yet incorporated the latest advances in active monitoring, data analytics, or security information and event management (SIEM) protocols. Next, today’s warfighters often operate in a disconnected, intermittent and limited (DIL) environment. In addition, these warfighters typically operate in hostile areas where the need to conceal one’s digital identity and operate in total stealth is paramount. Thus, it’s not enough to ensure the protection and fidelity of their networks – our work must keep the networks themselves – and the activity occurring on them – hidden. Finally, in this always-on, always-connected world, today’s users demand simple, reliable and secure systems that connect users, devices and systems to effectively accomplish their missions. Thus, network security tools must be both easy-to-use and versatile.
ST3P™
Enter ST3P™ – ManTech’s Secure Tactical Edge Platform. ST3P™ provides a scalable “cloud-in-a-box” capability. It offers a high-bandwidth-capable, rugged, secure and scalable network solution that can perform data analytics in a Disconnected, Intermittent, Limited bandwidth (DIL) environment. In other words, it’s ideal for our warfighters to use in the field. Other attributes? ST3P™ enables our customers to containerize and prioritize applications while simultaneously providing capabilities that fully exploit all the advantages of cloud-based technology. Based on an open-architecture approach that leverages the benefits of micro-services, ST3P™ provides an evolution beyond traditional legacy offerings that were built to tackle only predefined and static requirements. Further, it enables ManTech to provide a vendor-agnostic “Platform-as-a-Service” capability that enables our clients to ingest, store, process and visualize multiple petabytes of cyber data to perform real-time data analytics at the edge.
Zero Trust Model
To further enhance the operational security at the tactical edge, ManTech has adopted a Zero Trust Model (ZTM). Zero Trust starts from a presumption of invisibility, granting individual network visibility and access only to authenticated security professionals – and even then only granting access to the specific applications and services that users need to perform their job. All authorized resources are readily available to the warfighters, while all unauthorized resources are invisible – clearing out the clutter to the trusted edge users while masking capabilities to those with malicious intent. Thus, we can provide real-time access on a need-to-know basis and enable a unified way to control access while maintaining a high-security profile. Zero trust ensures that once proper access criteria is met, a dynamic one-on-one connection is generated from the warfighter’s device to the specific resource needed.
Autonomous Cyber Defense
ST3P™ integrates leading capabilities that enable automated remediation of perceived anomalies or threats. Our approach also facilitates the rapid sharing of intelligence across the battlefield when misconfigurations are detected to enable response at machine speed. This integrated capability allows members of cyber protection teams to decipher alerts and share detected misconfigurations across the battlefield instantly. More importantly, it automatically provisions required security controls for the tactical community at machine speed. Further use of autonomous cyber defense includes the automatic blocking of known vulnerabilities through the use of threat intelligence feeds. Endpoint vulnerability detection and mitigation occurs through the application of multiple autonomous safeguards, including behavior analysis of control file, registry, and device access as well as through whitelisting and blacklisting of applications. Additionally, the blocking of zero-day exploits against vulnerabilities in popular software is achieved through AI- and ML- enabled safeguards.
Conclusion
ManTech’s ST3P™ solution integrates autonomous cyber capabilities to defend the tactical edge against adaptive autonomous cyber attackers at machine speed. The solution provides data analytics and automation at the tactical edge to increase speed of decision and simultaneously easing immediate transport issues. When connected, ST3P™ performs as a hybrid/multi-cloud solution connected to a user-defined core; when disconnected it fully functions as an on-premise cloud. The developed architecture brings flexible, dynamic hardware utilization and container management for continuous application layer integration and deployment. Packaged with ManTech services and support, ST3P™ delivers the integration of talent and technology to securely deliver at speed within a secured approach to mission and solutions.
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