Mission Assurance
Successful missions from risk-informed decisions in design, operation, and sustainment
Systems and systems of systems, which operate with ever-increasing autonomy, must be designed and architected with the knowledge that they will accomplish missions as intended in contested and challenging environments. Our work aims to assure mission accomplishment, even in the face of adversarial behavior aimed at subverting it.
We develop and apply technologies that identify and manage failure modes with supporting, quantifiable metrics. We develop software architecture instrumentation to enable continuous monitoring of mission effectiveness during operations. We also create and prototype means to effectively adapt operation or degrade it in predictable ways while maintaining effective performance. Additionally, we investigate means to address the challenges arising when systems and software are combined in unforeseen ways for emerging missions.
Featured Work
Insider Threat
CERT researchers devise strategies to help you prevent and detect insider threats and respond if harm results.
GraphBLAS: A Programming Specification for Graph Analysis
The GraphBLAS Forum is a world-wide consortium of researchers working to develop a programming specification for graph analysis that will simplify development.
Converting a Navy Weapon System from a 32- to a 64-Bit Architecture
The SEI provided an independent assessment of the risks of migrating a weapons control system deployed by the U.S. Navy from one architecture to another.
Verifying Distributed, Adaptive Real-Time (DART) Systems
Distributed, adaptive real-time (DART) systems must satisfy safety-critical requirements. We developed a method to verify DART systems and generate assured code.
Featured Publications
Exploring the Use of Metrics for Software Assurance
March 07, 2019 • Technical Note
Carol Woody, PhDRobert J. EllisonCharlie Ryan
This report proposes measurements for each Software Assurance Framework (SAF) practice that a program can select to monitor and manage the progress it's making toward software assurance.
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Program Manager's Guidebook for Software Assurance
December 14, 2018 • Special Report
Kenneth NidifferCarol Woody, PhDTimothy A. Chick
This guidebook helps program managers address the software assurance responsibilities critical in defending software-intensive systems, including mission threads and cybersecurity.
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DoD Developer’s Guidebook for Software Assurance
December 14, 2018 • Special Report
William NicholsTom Scanlon
This guidebook helps software developers for DoD programs understand expectations for software assurance and standards and requirements that affect assurance.
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Composing Effective Software Security Assurance Workflows
October 18, 2018 • Technical Report
William NicholsJim McHaleDavid Sweeney
In an effort to determine how to make secure software development more cost effective, the SEI conducted a research study to empirically measure the effects that security tools—primarily automated static analysis tools—had on costs and benefits.
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The QUELCE Method: Using Change Drivers to Estimate Program Costs
April 19, 2016 • White Paper
Sarah Sheard
This report introduces the Quantifying Uncertainty in Early Lifecycle Cost Estimation (QUELCE) method for estimating program costs early in a development lifecycle.
DownloadHistory of Innovation at the SEI in Mission Assurance
The SEI has performed innovative research in C4ISR mission assurance for almost 30 years that has benefited government, industry, and academia. Learn more about a few of the highlights.
Enhancing Computing Power at the Edge
KD-Cloudlet, a tool for implementing tactical cloudlets, springs from years of research on cloud computing at the tactical edge. The SEI makes this tool freely available as part of its transition mission.
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Attacking Software Vulnerabilities
In 2014, the SEI CERT Division introduced the Tapioca tool to check Android apps for vulnerabilities. In the first year of use, Tapioca was used to check more than 1 million Android apps.
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Building Capability to Defend Against Malware
To analyze malware, SEI CERT researchers have developed a suite of tools based on a framework called Pharos, which is built on top of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's ROSE compiler infrastructure.
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Codifying Resilience Practice
After the 9/11 terror attacks, organizations sought greater operational resilience through security and business continuity. The SEI developed the CERT Resilience Management Model to improve operational resilience.
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Tailoring Risk Management Practice
Since the 1990s, SEI risk research has shaped standards for software risk management, enabling program managers in software-intensive programs to identify what could go wrong and mitigate those risks.
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Changing Software Contractor Selection Criteria
Through CMMI and SCAMPI, the SEI has made substantial contributions to software contractor appraisal and evaluation processes, strongly influencing government acquisition practices.
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Pointing the Way Toward a Software Architecture Discipline
The SEI contributed to a greater understanding of how architectural decisions affect the ease of modifying a user interface, introducing an important concept to the discipline of software architecture in the 1990s.
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