Description

TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY - Sophia

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), operated by the Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA) under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to license, further develop, and commercialize Sophia, a new software tool for providing improved situational awareness of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) network.  License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. INL may also be available to assist in further research and development of Sophia under a sponsored research agreement or CRADA program.

***Background: The Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE-OE) has invested in INL cyber security researchers' efforts (over 6 full-time equivalents for two years) to develop Sophia as a tool that will improve situational awareness on a SCADA network. The improved situational awareness will help users secure the SCADA network.  Sophia software was developed based on an industry need.  This need was identified during on-site cyber security assessments, discussions with users at various SCADA user group meetings and training sessions, and an understanding of open source tools used in evaluating the cyber security footprint of a SCADA. The philosophy for the tool development was to identify concerns related to SCADA deployment by using the same techniques as cyber attackers and encourage mitigation of those concerns.

***Description:  Sophia is a passive, real time tool for inter-device communication discovery and monitoring of the active elements in a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.  Sophia monitors network traffic from which it extracts the source, destination, and port sets (conversations) between SCADA components.  These conversations are stored in real time to establish a list of conversations that are valid.

***Advantages: Sophia provides the user with the knowledge to make wise decisions that enhance the security and reliability of their SCADA.  Key features of Sophia include:

-- Passive, online, real time conversation analysis; no interaction with the SCADA.

-- SCADA network traffic visualization in a 3-D graphical environment.

-- Safe to use in a production environment.

-- Works with new and legacy systems.

-- Ease of use - can be learned in one to two days.

-- Detects and alarms on conversations that are not part of normal SCADA operations.

-- Fingerprint export for offline analysis.

-- Software hooks allow sharing fingerprint data with third party tools for offline analysis.

-- Provides full functionality for SCADA installations in the Energy sector.

***Potential Applications: The most immediate application of this invention relates to situational awareness of SCADA networks in the Energy sector. However, the technology also has applications relating to network traffic anomaly detection and alarming, vulnerability and red team assessments, test beds for cyber security system analysis and testing, network mapping tools and techniques, and secure network design consultation, although these applications may not be fully developed or fully tested yet.

***Development Status: Sophia is currently in beta testing, expected to be complete in 2012.  U.S. organizations are invited to apply to become beta testers.  Sophia is slated for commercialization for wide scale production distribution by October 2012.

***Intellectual Property: INL has asserted copyright in the Sophia software and filed a U.S. Patent Application.

***Commercial Opportunity: INL is seeking industry partners to continue to develop and commercialize this technology. The ideal licensee would have some or all of the following qualifications:

-- Experience in a related business, especially related to security for SCADA systems in the Energy sector.

-- Demonstrated ability to bring new technologies to the market.

-- The resources to make a significant investment in the commercialization of this technology.

-- An interest in performing and funding cooperative research at the INL if necessary.

-- Substantial manufacturing and research operations in the United States.

INL, in accordance with its contract with the Department of Energy, also intends to give preference to qualified small business respondents.

NOTE:  THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT.  

Companies interested in commercializing Sophia should provide a written statement of interest (may be submitted by e-mail) no later than sixty (60) days from the publication date of this Notice. The statement of interest should include the following information:
1. Company Name and address
2. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact
3. A description of corporate business and technical expertise relevant to commercializing this technology

4. A description of the company's motivation for pursuing this opportunity.

Companies deemed appropriate will be provided with further information on the technology. Such information may require an executed Nondisclosure Agreement. Respondents wishing to enter into negotiations for a commercial license may be required to submit a business plan for the commercialization of the technology prior to licensee(s) selection and negotiations.

Written responses should be directed to:

Mark Kaczor, Sr. Commercialization Manager, Phone 208-526-0360, Fax 208-520-0876, e-mail: [email protected], P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3805