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IORTA Overview

Information Operations Red Team and Assessments™ (IORTA™) Program
Focuses upon:

Information Operations (IO) IO considers a wide set of effects including physical, electronic, cyber, and social engineering. IORTA considers all forms of information including digital, verbal, written, visual, cognitive, social, and news media.
Red Teaming (RT) Most of our assessments consider malevolent intent rather than standard design issues of normal or abnormal environments, even when we don't apply our red team for a customer's needs.
Assessments (A) Our work is focused at providing our customers assessments of their systems comprised of single components, software, hardware, complete enterprises, scenarios, infrastructures, through world-wide information systems. Assessments may occur throughout a system's lifecycle from concept, engineering, prototype, full implementation, upgrade, and retirement.

   

Assessment-Spectrum Our experience has shown that one fixed methodology is insufficient to prop erly assess a given system, component, or scenarios. We have a spectrum of assessment methodologies and assessment types that we apply as needed to most efficiently meet customer goals and provide consistent, measurable, and actionable results. Methodologies include risk assessment, IT Management, IT Security, and the "Information Design Assurance Red Team"™ (IDART™). Types of assessment include quick-look, complete, white boarding, experimentation, demonstration, and Opposition Force (OpFor), and specialty component.  The IORTA process and its subprocess were composed and refined from those developed at Sandia National Laboratories' and its 50-year history of design-assess techniques. We also embrace external techniques, processes, and tools that are appropriate for a given assessment as well as refining our own techniques through continued research and development activities.
   
iDART The "Information Design Assurance Red Team"™ (IDART™) is the most technically sophisticated assessment element of the IORTA program. It is used to understand vulnerabilities of systems with well conceived or advanced security concepts. Developments in the IDART program flow to other assessment types in the IORTA program. For more information about this program, please see the IDART web page.
   
Tactical Response Our "Tactical Red team Analysis Cell"™ (TRAC) was developed in order to provide time-critical response to customers-typically in hours to days. It is often focused at applying the adversarial mind set and technical competencies to understand the impact of observables or events.
   
Adversarial Modeling IORTA utilizes adversarial modeling to enhance its assessment process and provide better completeness and consistency for its customers. In IORTA, this modeling can be described as a script of motivations, goals, and intent an adversary may hold for various environments. Such modeling helps to identify vulnerabilities that will be exploited, predict behavior in a scenario, and identify intent in forensic data.
   
Infrastructure IORTA performs assessments of infrastructure that focus on aspects of information systems, information flow, and decision making. "Infrastructure" refers to system, organization, company, and U.S. Critical Infrastructure systems. Assessments have been performed for U.S. Government, military, electric power, finance, water, oil & gas, and other groups. IORTA draws from Sandia's long involvement in Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) initiatives including simulation and analysis capabilities.
   
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, also known as Digital Control Systems (DCS), are a special type of information system that control the infrastructure of an organization, industry or critical infrastructure element of a country. This is a special focus area for IORTA that is enabled by assessment experience and other SCADA Programs at Sandia National Laboratories.
   
Wireless Wireless technologies are becoming an integral component of almost every information system.  IORTA considers the wireless domain as a special focus area for assessments in order to provide more comprehensive and detailed insights for our customers. Our activity focuses on all wireless communication including legacy, wireless Internet, networking protocols, and optical systems.
   
Training Training is part of the IORTA process that is used both internally to assemble high-performing assessment teams that provide more complete and consistent results for our customers and externally to provide awareness and capability to perform certain assessments. Topic include those on methodologies and approach as well as focused technical subjects.
   
Attack Tools IORTA utilizes and develops tools to provide consistency and efficiently in our assessments and experimentation. "Tools" has a wide definition and include databases, discovery aids, software, hardware, and techniques.
   
Research IORTA pursues research in areas of information assurance, assessments, adversarial modeling, and related information assurance fields in order to improve our ability to assess customers systems.  IORTA also draws upon domain-specific research throughout Sandia National Laboratories. We engage in research funded internally, with universities, industry, and other government organizations.

 
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