The tragic Baltimore Bridge accident in March necessitates improvements to prevent similar incidents in the future. Dr. Corren McCoy, Chief Data Strategist at G2 Ops, explains the U.S. Navy's plan to implement Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to avert future disasters.

"While some believe the event was caused by an incredible string of bad luck, the commercial maritime industry can protect against incidents such as this and make their ships more reliable by learning digital engineering lessons from the U.S. Navy." - Dr. Corren McCoy, Chief Data Strategist at G2 Ops.

The Navy's MBSE approach helps maritime operators understand:

• How a new problem could affect critical operations
• How to figure out how their Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) systems will act if something goes wrong
• How can we prioritize which issues need fixing to keep maritime systems safe and strong for a long time?

Innoslate facilitates MBSE by providing a comprehensive platform for creating digital models and performing analysis across various domains, including IT, OT, and ICS subsystems. Here's how Innoslate accomplishes the tasks outlined in the Navy's MBSE approach:

The 4 Steps in the Navy's MBSE Approach

#1 "Model the Baseline"

Modeling the current system, otherwise known as "As-Is" Architecture, allows engineers and operators to find flaws quickly. Innoslate helps users create digital twins, identify potential failures, and manage baselines and changes. 

Digital Twin Creation 

Innoslate allows users to create digital twins of IT, OT, and ICS subsystems, including interfaces, data flows, and operational threads. Users can model systems' architectural and functional characteristics through diagrams, matrices, and other visualization tools.

Identification of Potential Failures 

With Innoslate, users can identify potential component failures or cyberattack surfaces by decomposing operational threads to the level of configuration items. This decomposition analysis enables a disciplined and standardized engineering approach to analyze system vulnerabilities.

Baseline and Change Management 

Innoslate automates baseline and change management adjustments to address design volatility and ensure commonality between platform variants. Users can track changes, perform impact analysis, and maintain version control within the platform.

#2 "Connect Intelligence Repositories"

Once you have the baselined model or digital twin, you must perform a risk analysis to assess how to meet security intelligence threats.

Integration with Threat Intelligence Databases

Information from external threat intelligence databases can be imported, viewed, and traced to data in Innoslate since Innoslate is approved for IL6 and above ATOs in other environments. Automated processes can ingest, aggregate, and correlate threat data from open sources, enabling users to map vulnerabilities and attack vectors to the architecture. This integration enhances the platform's capability to identify potential risks impacting operational and mission threads.

#3 "Simulate Operational Risks"

Simulate the functional models to identify the risks to the operation. Doing this early in the lifecycle will help reduce and prevent unknown issues. 

Simulation Capabilities

After you have developed your baselined models, analyze the operational impact of the attacks in the Discrete Event Simulator and assess probabilities in the Monte-Carlo simulator. Simulate various scenarios to understand the potential consequences of cyberattacks or system failures. The variability results allow operators to prioritize mitigation strategies and develop remediation recommendations for decision-making and risk mitigation. 

#4 Monitor and Control

Monitoring the entire system or product is an integral part of the MBSE and digital engineering. You need a tool that provides customizable dashboards and views so operators, engineers, and project managers can monitor and control the right information.

Graphical Dashboards

Innoslate offers interactive visualizations through graphical dashboards and views, enabling users to monitor system performance and potential vulnerabilities. Users can quickly identify known vulnerabilities, implement configuration changes, and respond to emerging threats. Integrate tools such as MATLAB into Innoslate to create a graphical view of historical and trend analysis. Innoslate views and dashboards facilitate proactive decision-making and risk management within the platform.

Innoslate supports MBSE by providing tools for creating digital models, traceability to intelligence repositories, simulating operational risks, and offering graphical dashboards for monitoring and control. 

These capabilities empower users to identify, analyze, and mitigate risks associated with complex systems. The Navy's approach to using MBSE to prevent another tragic incident, such as the Baltimore Bridge collapse, will ultimately enhance the safety and resilience of maritime operations, mitigating the risk of another disaster.