Moving Target Research

In December 2011, the White House, in cooperation with Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program released the report Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program. One of the research thrusts outlined in this plan was Moving Target (MT), research and development that results in the presentation of a dynamic attack surface to an adversary, increasing the work factor necessary to successfully attack and exploit a cyber target. Throughout the federal government, research related to MT has been funded since 2009, but there is no single venue where this work is presented and published. The Symposium on Moving Target Research intends to bring together and publish the work of the MT community to provide a basis for building on the current state of the art.

The central question of the symposium will be “is there scientific evidence to show that moving target techniques are a substantial improvement in the defense of cyber systems (a game changer),” including how to develop better measures of effectiveness and performance specific to moving target techniques.

This Symposium will take place at the Historic Inns of Annapolis, Annapolis, MD on June 11, 2012. A registration site will be announced in April 2012 for attendees.  A limited block of rooms will be available at the Historic Inns of Annapolis at the US Government rate for June 10-13, 2012.

MT topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

• Dynamic network services
• Game theoretic approaches
• Virtual machines
• Cloud computing
• Dynamic execution
• Automated response actions
• Situational awareness

Important Dates (all due dates/time 1800 EST):
Draft Papers due April 2, 2012
Notification April 20, 2012
Poster abstracts due May 4, 2012
Camera-ready copy due May 18. 2012
Symposium June 11, 2012, Annapolis, MD

Submitted papers must be 7-12 pages in 11 point font including figures and references. Appendences no longer than 8 pages may be submitted in addition to the paper, but the paper must be intelligible without these appendences. Submitted papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or conference proceedings. Papers will be subject to peer-review and selection based on technical rigor, application of scientific method, and contribution to the overall area of moving target. There will be an accompanying poster session open for researchers and companies that would like to highlight or demonstrate available MT technologies. Papers should be emailed in pdf format to (mtr-symposium@sei.cmu.edu) NLT 1800, April 2, 2012 for consideration. You may also use this address for any questions you have concerning this upcoming event.

• MT transparency
• Work factor metrics
• Risk analysis
• End-to-end security
• Resiliency
• Intrusion Tolerance
• Measures of effectiveness

Program Committee:
Matt Bishop, UC Davis
Deb Frincke, NSA
Matt Gaston, CMU
Sushil Jajodia, GMU
Tom Longstaff, NSA
Ed Rhyne, DHS
Bill Scherlis, CMU
Cliff Wang, ARO
Jeannette Wing, CMU