Self-checking software for information assurance in the 21st century

The key to achieving information dominance by the US armed forces is the transmittal of accurate and timely information to the warfighter when and where it is needed. Information Assurance (IA) is the foundation for ensuring that critical information is both accurate and timely. However, innovative approaches are needed to achieve high levels of information assurance for military applications such as command and control (C2). An adaptation of theoretical checker results derived from the research of Dr. Manuel Blum at the University of California at Berkeley has been applied to several real-life applications at Raytheon with promising results. Under the United States Air Force (USAF) Self-Checking Embedded Information System Software (SCEISS) program, we have begun applying checkers to enhance the IA of a system. In this paper, we present examples of how checkers might be applied as solutions to IA problems and we assess the benefits of using checkers instead of, or in conjunction with, more traditional IA methods. We conclude with near term plans to demonstrate and validate the use of checkers for IA in a realistic C2 application