A Case Study for Authentication of Monitoring Equipment

By collecting information using a Host-supplied monitoring instrument behind an information barrier, the Host has confidence that their classified information is being protected. Through authentication, the Monitoring Party gains appropriate confidence that the information reported by the monitoring system accurately reflects the true state of the monitored item. Numerous tools and methods have been proposed for authenticating various measurement systems. This paper summarizes the results of a case study where a functioning system was authenticated using a selected suite of tools. Since the concept of Monitor-authenticated, Host-supplied equipment is relatively new, very little experience and empirical data exist to evaluate the proposed tools and methods. The value of most of the tools is based upon individual notions as opposed to field experience. It is difficult to evaluate the authentication value of individual tools because the actual value of a tool is a combination of factors including confidence, logistics, complexity, cost, and invasiveness. One way to gain realistic data is to authenticate a representative monitoring system using a selected set of tools. Applying tools to a functioning system has a number of other benefits including the acquisition of valuable experience using the tool, a chance to improve the tool, and information on the tradeoff between confidence and effort expended. To this end, a case study was conducted to gather information and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of a specific suite of tools. For the case study a representative measurement system was designed, assembled, installed, and operated. The system was composed of an HPGe detector system, collection and analysis computers, power supplies and conditioners, and security watchdog features. Selected authentication techniques were applied at each stage. To maximize the value of the results, effort was expended to replicate real world monitoring conditions as closely as possible. The complexity of the system and the scope of the authentication activities were set to allow an accurate, but cost effective, evaluation of the selected suite of tools and methods.