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Home 2022 June 14

Daily Archives: 06/14/2022

Need of a Geospatial Approach to Cybersecurity

By
Aditya Chaturvedi
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0
Need of a Geospatial Approach to Cybersecurity

Need of a Geospatial Approach to Cybersecurity

With the rise in smart devices, on-the-go connectivity, high volume of data transfer and new business paradigms offering customized services and solutions to users, one of the major downsides would be the increasing vulnerability to spoofs, malware, hacking and other forms of cyberattacks.

The coming age of automation, powered by IoT and ultra-high-speed 5G connectivity, would lead to unprecedented data generation, collation and analysis. The cat-and-mice chase between hackers and those working to safeguard crucial information from them will only intensify.

Today almost all data has a location and spatial component, which is valuable across verticals and sectors, and is bound to increase as geospatial convergence with frontier technologies such as AI, 5G, IoT gains momentum. The challenge ahead is not just to identify risks, but to mitigate them timely and to design systems that cannot be hacked and intruded. The rise in risk factor would also lead to an exponential increase in the overall damage.

At the last Day 1 plenary at GeoInt 2022, geospatial approach towards cybersecurity was discussed. The panel delved into all aspects of cybersecurity, from legal, technological to sociological.

Data boundaries

Data aggregation and monetization has already turned into a lucrative business model, as companies vie with each other for behavioral data of customers for targeted advertisements. More pernicious influences include election hacking, online disinformation, rancid social polarization and manipulation through algorithms.  The involvement of corporate behemoths and the lack of a uniform data regime in most countries further complicates the situation.

Rohan Verma, CEO, MapMyIndia, believes that tech indigenization would serve the dual purpose of domestic capacity enhancement as well as preventing data of citizenry from being exploited by overseas companies not under a country’s jurisdiction. In this regard, data sovereignty/ localization and the demand for domestic data centers has assumed relevance in the raging cybersecurity debate.

When all technologies are being integrated across verticals, it gets difficult to view them in silos, as they either function in tandem, or complement the other. Convergence and interoperability best represent what we seek to achieve – digital transformation.

MapMyIndia has coined an acronym called MANDIGS(Maps, IoT, Navigation, Drones, Analytics, GIS, Satellite) to emphasize crucial areas related to geospatial, and the ones that will be at the forefront of the fast-transforming and innovating world.

Emerging challenges

Worldwide cyber security market is poised to grow to $158 billion dollar by 2023. And if we look at the staggering annual loss due to cybercrime, then we are eyeing an alarming future, if things are not set right. As per some estimates, the global cost of cybercrimes could run in trillions by 2025. Clearly, this calls for concerted action, vision, and tech innovation.

“Cloud has disrupted everything, which presents both threat and opportunity. Increased remote work post-Covid has also increased the need for cyber security”, says Jasbir Singh Solanki, CEO – Homeland & Cybersecurity, Mahindra Defence.

“Any company that offers solutions and services and has a digital footprint, or uses algorithms is today a software company, no matter whether it operates in logistics or retail. That’s why the need to ensure a layered cyber defense mechanism as there’s no ‘Google’ of cybersecurity”, he added.

Another important pillar of cybersecurity that gets overlooked in the din, is a robust legal framework and a collaborative approach.

In India, there are a maze of laws and cybersecurity is covered under the IT Act 2000, but there’s no national geospatial policy or guideline, precluding a multi-dimensional understanding of cybersecurity from a geospatial prism.

“India lacks a dedicated law on cybersecurity. Moreover, even globally there’s no binding international law on it”, said Dr. Pavan Duggal, Chairman, International Commission on Cyber Security Law.

Geospatial as Cornerstone of Defense and Security

By
Snehil Manohar Singh
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Geospatial as Cornerstone of Defense and Security

Geospatial as Cornerstone of Defense and Security

Geospatial GeoIntelligence Defense

GeoIntelligence 2022 was held in New Delhi on June 14 and 15 after a hiatus of four years. With the theme ‘Geospatial Strategy for Defense and Security’, the conference focused on defense, internal security and public safety, and space applications of geospatial technology, bringing together the who’s who of the defense and intelligence community and industry leaders in geospatial technology.

Emergence of geospatial tech in Indian security

The first plenary session was moderated by Lt. Gen. Girish Kumar, VSM (Retd.), Advisor, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India —also the lead speaker — eponymous to the theme. He began by stressing the importance that geospatial technology plays in the ongoing ‘digital age’ and how it is now a widely acknowledged fact.

“We need to have a geospatial strategy for the country. The Government of India has taken various [forward looking] steps in announcing a space strategy; similarly, a comprehensive geospatial strategy and policy is required,” Kumar said, adding that while guidelines do exist, there needs to be a separate document for defense and security.

“Positional and navigational infrastructure has to be the foremost element in the strategy. In this regard, the country has already undertaken steps in the form establishing a Continuous Operating Reference Station (CORS) network,” he said.

Kumar added that all datasets need to be integrated with precise geospatial foundation datasets and the neglected aspect of investment needs to be addressed for the formation of a robust data model structure. “Our [India’s] reliance on foreign agencies in defense and intelligence should be minimum,” he said, lauding the adoption of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) for geospatial survey in the country, and concluded by talking about the need for interoperable datasets, inclusion of all stakeholders, as well as the need for capacity building.

Changing picture

The plenum was then addressed by Pronab Mohanty, IPS, Inspector General, Border Security Force (BSF), who spoke on the impact of core geospatial technology, specifically Geographic Information System (GIS), in that oldest of defense and internal security job — guarding borders.

“We need to take a fresh look at GIS. At any given point of time, petabytes of data must be generated from GIS,” said Mohanty, emphasizing on how it is changing lives and has spawned an enormous number of applications in the past few decades. “One of the aspects of GIS or geospatial datasets is that they’re different from conventional databases. So far, in computer science, data used to be stored in two-dimensional tensors; when you look at GIS, there are three dimensions — possibly a fourth in the form of time,” he said, highlighting the specialty of being able to store data in matrices.

Mohanty went on to elaborate how beneficial this has proved to be for mapping and its ramifications for military and paramilitary planning, from determining logistics to leveraging operational potential with regard to physical geography. “When we talk about GIS, we need to understand the art of cartography and how fast and far it has evolved in recent times,” he added, noting how the emergence of 3D mapping has resulted in the formation of a common operating picture.

The Inspector General of BSF then listed major applications born out of the rapid evolution of geospatial and allied technologies before speaking on the importance of GeoIntelligence as a discipline. The session’s final speaker was Vishal Anand, Senior Vice President — Sales, Esri India. Besides talking about Esri’s cornerstone role in the propagation of the adoption of geospatial technology in India, he said, “Everybody has talked about data because it has become real time. Visualization expectation is also in real time.”

The availability of data in real time has indeed changed the game and acted as a catalyst for the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is changing the way people work and lead their lives, besides shaping a new world order in which defense and security play such a critical part. As far the influence of geospatial technology goes in bringing about this change, Anand rightly pointed out: “Data not analyzed in the right form is not valuable.” This is a marker of how the rubric of defense and security is indeed geospatial.

Role of Geo4IR in Boosting National Defense

By
Aditya Chaturvedi
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0
Role of Geo4IR in Boosting National Defense

Role of Geo4IR in Boosting National Defense

GeoIntelligence Defense GEO4IR

The contours of defense, security and warfare evolve with technological advancements. In order to forestall the possibility of any attack and outmaneuver combat adversaries when the need arises, it’s vital to timely upgrade defense capabilities and integrate them with latest data and tech innovations. 

With the help of a robust information-sharing and reconnaissance mechanism in place, a lot of threats can be preempted. Precise mapping, reliable data sharing, sharp analytics and a geospatial framework is a crucial component of a nation’s defense.

At the plenary session of GeoIntelligence 2022, the crucial role of geospatial and intelligence was discussed.

GeoIntelligence is a new form of intelligence that bolsters conventional intelligence, and is the way forward in new-age conflicts that are increasingly witnessing the use of PNT, drones, GPS and sensor-guided weapon systems.

“True transparency is aided by GeoInt. To ensure safeguarding of maps and optimized filtering of GeoINT for content delivery is imperative”, said Lt. General Tarun Kumar Chawla, DG Artillery.

Real-time intel

In the past few years, the use of drones in defense has increased manifold, ranging from reconnaissance to neutralizing targets with precision. Sensor to shooter cloud needs to be accessible so that there’s no latency in detecting the target and acting. 

As is often the case with most technology advancements, legislations and norms are slow to evolve, which leads to the potential not being fully harnessed. A conducive and enabling mechanism that can rapidly scale up innovation in geospatial intelligence is crucial for defense.

“Geo4IR inspires confidence in capex investment, opens up new age use cases, and boosts space-based intelligence. There’s a need for changing the game from a reactive to a proactive sovereign system. Integration of EO data and automatic analysis is needed for real-time change detection in terrain and less latency”, said Anurag Garg, Director – Strategy & Marketing, Thales.

“With neo-age platforms competing with conventional, there’s an issue of asymmetry, fast-evolving situation, vast amount of data and lack of actionable insights”, he adds.

Geospatial enhancement, state-of-the-art data analytics, real-time information exchange and a technological outlook is essential for defense. There’s a need of spatial thinking, collaborative mindset and access control so that while there’s synergy and alignment in purpose. As connectivity and data generation expands, so would the role of geospatial intelligence in all facets of defense & security.

Role of GeoIntelligence in Developing National Defense Strategy

By
Nibedita Mohanta
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0
Role of GeoIntelligence in Developing National Defense Strategy

Role of GeoIntelligence in Developing National Defense Strategy

GeoInt2022

After a gap of four-long years, the 12th edition of GeoIntelligence is back again in 2022, with the theme, “Geospatial Strategy for Defense & Security”. Geospatial has been an integral sector of human endeavour starting from agriculture, transport, communication, energy and defense.

The global security environment is undergoing definitive transformation due to the rapidly changing geopolitical scenario and at the pace of technological development. US’ dominance in the Indo-Pacific region appears to be diminishing, because China’s military, economic and political rise is by far the most significant change in the international world order in the current century. Apart from its massive thrust on developing its economy, last few decades have seen it embark on modernising its armed forces in a very big way which is a way is posing threat to USA’s world supremacy.

India is regionally in a very difficult place, with two collusive nuclear powers one in the north and one in the west along with the history of disputed regions J&K, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, which is why “we cannot afford to drop our guards as far as our defense preparedness is concerned. We are in the era of network centric warfare, characterised by exponentially enhanced situational awareness decision making, dissemination of information, and precision capabilities, all of which are facilitated by geospatial technologies,” said Lt Gen AKS Chandele PVSM, AVSM (Retd), President – Defence, Internal Security & Public Safety, Geospatial World in his welcome speech.

Space capabilities for national safety and security

Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari PVSM AVSM VM ADC, Chairman, COSC & Chief of The Air Staff, spoke about shaping Indigenous national space capabilities. “Space today has become closely integrated with our everyday life, enables numerous essential functions.” He points out that in recent times increased focus on military space application has been accelerated by two key factors:

1. Increased Geopolitical churnings have aggravated the threat scenario

2. Growing realization that boundaries that separate military and civil are getting blurred.

“With multiple commercial players entering the segment, in due course space technology will evolve and we shall see reduced manufacturing and launching costs, which will favor the shift towards the concept. While capability enhancement in multiple domain of space applications is the way forward, I strongly feel this evolution can only be fast tracked if we increase the military and civil fusion, which is a blend of institutes, industries, startups, academia, research and development, test and evolution capabilities,” he added.

JD Patil, Whole-time Director and Senior Executive Vice President, L&T & Chairman, ISpA, said, “The most important aspect of geospatial is to be able to see and put things in digital domain.”

Today there are limitations in terms where do we put a man or a flag, but with the help of satellites, intelligence gathering becomes easy. There is another looming threat is spoofing and hacking of satellites which makes the fusion of different domains difficult and puts national security at risk. “We have to address that together by developing such technologies that can protect the satellites from getting hacked,” he added.

Lt Gen Vinod Khandare PVSM, AVSM, SM (Retd), Advisor, Ministry of Defence identifies that there is a struggle between resource and the priorities, wherein resources come at a price while priorities don’t wait. “GeoInt offers capability to develop defense diplomacy. India is known for taking own stances and not taking sides in global geopolitical scenarios. GeoInt empowers us to look for optimizing our sources by adopting deep technologies and smart solutions. It gives you broad spectrum of events that will happen for all the three services air, land and sea. GeoInt is important for Comprehensive national security, it along with the synergy of various intelligence helps you identify the threats whether temporary or permanent and where we went wrong or what we did right, when it comes to complicated economic security,” he added.

Sanjay Kumar, Founder & CEO, Geospatial World, emphasized that creating robust GNSS infrastructure is very critical for a nation’s security in terms of both for military and civil services because they are prone to manipulations. He applauded at the move that the government has made in allowing private players into the space sector, which will help in building the nation. He pointed out that, “we need to nurture and handhold the entrepreneurs and make them part of the nation’s strategy.”

Next year in 2023, the focus of the 13th edition of GeoIntelligence will stretch beyond India with a wider vision, and widest participants and audience from Asia-Pacific region, (excluding China). It will be Indo-Pacific GeoIntelligence 2023.

Skyfire launches advanced drone training academy

By
News Desk
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0
Skyfire launches advanced drone training academy

Skyfire Consulting, the most trusted and experienced public safety UAS consulting group, has announced the completion of a series of advanced drone training courses for federal law enforcement agencies: United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States Secret Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  These trainings represent a combination of Skyfire’s platform specific training on the Parrot Anafi Mil aircraft; and Skfyire’s advanced mission specific training. Skyfire also announced the launch of Skyfire Drone Academy— Real-world highly customizable POST certified courses delivering the best and most applicable training for public safety, military/DOD and critical sectors. With basic Part 107 and program development to advanced SWAT, search and rescue (SAR), indoor flight tactics, fire service scenarios, drone as first responder (DFR), and more, Skyfire Drone Academy becomes the gold standard in drone training.

“Skyfire Drone Academy enters to meet the growing demand for mission specific training and builds on our nearly ten years of public safety UAS training experience,” said Matt Sloane, Skyfire founder and CEO. “We’ve assembled a team of world-class trainers who are former law enforcement, fire and military professionals who aim to help agencies and departments get the most out of their drone programs.”

To better serve its clients and accommodate the growing demand for its training, Skyfire has recently promoted Mike Rogers to VP of Public Safety Operations. Rogers retired from a 22-year career as an FBI Special Agent, where he spearheaded the Bureau’s UAS program, and directed both equipment selection, training programs, and operational deployments. Rogers is a United States Air Force and Law Enforcement veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, serving in roles such as Field Training Officer, investigative Special Agent, SWAT team operator, Sniper/Observer, Pilot in Command, Surveillance Team Leader, and Aviation Program Manager. He also has more than 5,000 hours as a manned aircraft pilot in command.

Joining Rogers on the Skyfire Drone Academy leadership team is Chief Security Officer, Mike Briant. Briant is the founder of Skydas Group International, a wide spectrum strategic security consulting and threat management firm. As a former United States Marine, diplomatic security contractor and law enforcement officer, Briant has faced modern-day challenges in combating terrorism both domestically, and in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe; where he provided security for US ambassadors, congressional delegations, multinational corporations and US and NATO military commanders. Briant is well versed and operationally competent in Counter Assault Team Operations, Tactical Support Team Operations, Principal, Personnel and Asset Recovery and extensive traumatic casualty care training.

Skyfire Drone Academy trains on a wide range of UAS and customizes training based on the needs of its clients. The Academy is an official Parrot certified training partner, focusing on manufacturer-level training on Parrot government and military systems and, when needed, civilian systems. Graduates of that program will receive a Parrot Professional Pilot Certificate, specialty education, training, and experience to make the most of the innovative Parrot ANAFI USA and Parrot ANAFI Ai UAV systems.