AI-assisted tool helped secure satellite communication system after 2022 Russian hacking

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WASHINGTON (AP) — On the same day it invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia disabled thousands of satellite modems across Ukraine and other European countries, aiming to disrupt communications. A new AI-assisted tool aims to help close that kind of vulnerability amid concerns about continued Russian aggression and newer Iranian threats to cyber infrastructure.

The cybersecurity company Atalanta has released “Argo” — a product that includes the technology that was instrumental in securing Viasat's satellite communications network after the Russian hacking attack. Industry experts say it presents a new capability for those trying to defend critical systems in the emerging cyberwarfare theater.

Atalanta’s leaders say the new technology relies on what it calls “software understanding,” combining complex mathematics along with artificial intelligence technology to create the first commercially available system that can analyze software and internet-connected systems for vulnerabilities in a more comprehensive manner.

The conflicts in both Ukraine and Iran have highlighted the danger that hackers can pose to everyday life. This summer several government agencies have warned that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems, among other critical infrastructure.

“The tools and techniques of yesterday do not scale for today and ‘software understanding’ is going to be the path forward for anyone building a system of consequence for the United States,” Atalanta CEO and co-founder Anjana Rajan told The Associated Press.

Viasat’s chief of cyber strategy, Nick Saunders, said the new technology not only ensures that the Viasat network is hardened against future attacks but produces the math that backs up that claim.

“We have built over the past year, working with Atalanta ... a capability where we can start to develop an understanding of how our systems are more resilient against attacks,” Saunders said.

Atalanta's technology has also been tapped to work on the Genesis Mission — the Department of Energy’s effort to create autonomous nuclear reactors.

Greg Shannon, the chief cybersecurity scientist at the government’s Idaho National Laboratory, said the kind of technology that Atalanta is making available will likely eventually become the standard for testing any new capability.

“In a decade or two, I would expect it to be just part of the standard development tool kits,” Shannon added.

Shannon noted that the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, has been investing billions in this technology for a couple of decades. This investment helped create the demand for a system like Argo.

DARPA is the military’s cutting-edge research office, which also helped pioneer technologies such as the internet and stealth aircraft.

“They’ve probably invested well over $2 billion in various programs to advance formal methods ... and we’re finally seeing them start to come to fruition,” Shannon said.

Last year, Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, told a DARPA software conference in a prerecorded address that he saw the mathematics underpinning Atalanta's technology as the future of the military and he wanted it to “become the DoD’s gold standard" for cybersecurity.