How we helped DARPA successfully develop and present a national vision.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central R&D organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. It pursues research and technology where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

CHALLENGE

DARPA’s Information Assurance program of the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) needed to develop, focus, and ultimately present its future vision of the nation’s IA technology and infrastructure to the Executive Branch, Congress, and the American people.

SOLUTION

Create a communication strategy that would inform internal and external audiences.  After viewing similar projects written & directed by John DeBello and produced by Janet Dahle, the organization tasked them to create a LomaVision™ production.

IA: Strategic Cyber-Defense envisions a future cyber-terrorist attack on military targets and the national utility power grid. The attack is successfully thwarted through the coordinated efforts of military and civilian authorities utilizing systems and strategies visualized by DARPA IA.

RESULTS

IA: Strategic Cyber-Defense has been markedly successful. More than 4,000 copies on DVD and VHS are currently in circulation for multiple audiences.

Notable project value includes:

R&D Support: According to the client, many useful operational and research relationships that might otherwise not have been established, or would have taken longer to develop, are directly attributable to the process and presentation of this vision-setting video.  It has also served as a rich source of potential research topics for the IA community, and helps consolidate direction and implementation of future efforts.

Training:  It is also being used for training at National Defense University and the FBI Training Center in Quantico. Numerous other communities are using it as a discussion enhancement device and training tool.

Briefing:  The President’s National Security Advisor requested that it be distributed to members of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC).

Utilities Education: MITRE staff supporting the NIPC has been holding workshops at the NERC Regional level with power companies to train them in Critical Infrastructure Protection. The video serves as the introduction to the workshop – motivation to get people thoroughly engaged. The client calls it “very effective.” Copies are given to each of the power companies, who are using it as workshop material for CIP training within their organizations.

University Education:  The presentation is used on an ongoing basis by programs at Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon, and many more of the nation’s leading universities.

The Public: As an unclassified presentation, IA: Strategic Cyber-Defense has been effectively presented to the public as a demonstration of on-going efforts to coordinate, consolidate, and improve integrated cyber-defense efforts.