Moving Target Defense: a Journey from Idea to Product

Abstract

In today's enterprise networks, there are many ways for a determined attacker to obtain a foothold, bypass current protection technologies, and attack the intended target. Over several years we have developed the Self-shielding Dynamic Network Architecture (SDNA) technology, which prevents an attacker from targeting, entering, or spreading through an enterprise network by adding dynamics that present a changing view of the network over space and time. SDNA was developed with the support of government sponsored research and development and corporate internal resources. The SDNA technology was purchased by Cryptonite, LLC in 2015 and has been developed into a robust product offering called Cryptonite NXT. In this paper, we describe the journey and lessons learned along the course of feasibility demonstration, technology development, security testing, productization, and deployment in a production network.