Boeing's new Cyber Engagement Centre

News Report

As announced in a recent press release, Boeing opened in October a new Cyber Engagement Center in Annapolis Junction. The 32,000-square-foot facility will provide a collaborative environment where security experts work together to address current and evolving cybersecurity challenges.

The CEC offers secure meeting areas as well as dynamic data analysis, information sharing, traffic intelligence, analytics and other capabilities for commercial and defense customers. It is staffed by cybersecurity experts and research-and-development (R&D) teams from across the Boeing enterprise.

The Centre

The CEC is a working operations facility that supports four key missions:

• Connect with customers: Building on Boeing’s commitment to customer collaboration, the facility offers secure meeting areas and dynamic experimentation spaces to discuss customer needs, analyze operating environments, identify threats and deliver security solutions.
• Continuous innovation: The CEC is staffed with information security experts focused on today’s missions and research and development teams chartered with preparing for the future.
• Live environment demonstrations: The CEC utilizes Boeing’s vast global network -- which supports more than 250,000 employee, customer and supplier user accounts logging in from more than 1,000,000 networked devices -- to deliver interactive demonstrations of Boeing’s products and services as they protect company assets in live environments.
• Protect Boeing’s global network: The CEC is home to one of Boeing’s Information Technology Operations Centers (ITOC) and Computing Security, Monitoring and Response (CSMR) facilities where IT experts are constantly monitoring the company’s network to ensure delivery of key applications and defend against cyber threats using many of Boeing’s own security capabilities.

The Context

Boeing has extensive experience in cybersecurity, acquired through developing, deploying and defending complex systems for customers as well as protecting its own global network. The company has made substantial investments in cybersecurity R&D and acquisitions over the past several years, while connecting capabilities from across the organization to bring the best of Boeing to customers.

Recent acquisitions eXMeritus and Kestrel have brought industry-leading data analysis and secure information-sharing capabilities. Narus and SMSi added real-time traffic intelligence solutions and analytics capabilities to help protect and maintain the integrity of distributed IP networks for government carriers and critical infrastructure employees.

Boeing also supports cyber education programs at high schools and universities, including the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions and the U.S. Air Force's CyberPatriot program, i.e. the national high school cyber defense competition created by the U.S. Air Force Association (AFA) to excite, educate, and motivate the next generation of cyber defenders and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates U.S. nation needs.

Comments

"The risks to industry and government cybersecurity grow every second of every day," said John Hinshaw, vice president and general manager, Boeing Information Solutions. "We've established this center to work collaboratively with our customers to help defend their critical infrastructure -- as well as our own."

"Our recent acquisitions have enhanced our ability to deliver the full-spectrum, defense-in-depth solutions our customers need," said Hinshaw.

References: Boeing (1,2), U.S. Cyber Patriot (3)