NIST Proposes ICS Cybersecurity Testbed

Yesterday the GSA published a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) solicitation seeking information on a Reconfigurable Industrial Control Systems Cyber-Security Testbed. The solicitation notes:

“After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, and specifications developed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a Purchase Order. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, then any competitive procurement that resulted would be conducted as a small business set-aside.”

The test bed to be developed will allow the measurement of the performance of industrial control systems when instrumented with cyber-security protections in accordance with best practices prescribed by national and international standards and guidelines. In order to allow for the test bed development to concentrate on developing methods of measuring system security performance instead of first having to develop a process, NIST is using a chemical control system model that has been widely investigated, the Tennessee Eastman (TE) Problem {original article (must pay for actual article) and the Challenge Archive}. The solicitation explains that:

 “The TE problem is an ideal candidate for cyber-security investigation because it is an open-loop unstable process that requires closed-loop supervision to maintain process stability and optimize operating costs.”

The response date required for this solicitation is August 18^th, 2014.

NOTE: Thanks to The Langner Group for publicly identifying this opportunity.