Page 38 - Cyber Warnings

CALLING FORTH INDUSTRY

COLLABORATION FOR BETTER AIR FORCE CYBERSECURITY
by KiMar Gartman, Program Coordinator, C-TRAC

Design Thinking

Nestled on the front range of Colorado, the United States Air Force Academy bustles with
activity while cadets make their way to their first hour classes.

Nineteen cadets from eleven different majors file into Fairchild Annex, Room 2N300, otherwise
known as the CyberWorx Design Studio.

Inside, the walls are alive with ideas, the tables outlined with visual storyboards, and industry
members await the cadets to continue ideation on how to solve the Air Force’s most difficult
cyber problems (some approaching the level of “wicked” problems).

This is the home of the Air Force CyberWorx program launched in fall of 2016 at the Air Force
Academy. By using design thinking principles, which President and CEO of IDEO Tim Brown
defines as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to
integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business
success” (IDEO), the CyberWorx program brings together industry, military, and academia to
tackle real Air Force cyber problems.

“Our Air Force’s agility in the cyber domain and the imagination we bring to bear on problems
helps us stay ahead of bad actors who wish to exploit operational and cybersecurity flaws.

This is crucial for our resilience -- getting our missions done by avoiding or fighting through
cyber attacks on our missions,” said Colonel Jeff Collins, Director of Air Force CyberWorx.

CyberWorx

Thus far, the CyberWorx program has launched four projects and is about to kick off its fifth.
CyberWorx teams have tackled such issues as how to communicate cyber threats to decision
st
makers in times of war and how to more quickly train 21 century cyber specialists.
A goal of the CyberWorx program is for the results from each project to be further developed
and commercialized.

To this end, the industry partners involved in the first project are now collaborating to develop
the results of their CyberWorx experience in a project called the Cyber Risk Dashboard.

38 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine February 2017 Edition
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