Chapter One
INDOPACOM J3 Admiral Nikki Fury
Camp H. M. Smith Aiea, Hawaii
As I’m walking back to my office in the J3-Operations Directorate, I have a feeling something is not right. Minutes ago, the Chinese Navy and our Reagan Carrier Strike Group traded blows. One of their 5th generation aircraft and a pilot with fewer skills than bad ideas collided with one of our F-18s.
Both aircraft ended up at the bottom of the Pacific. I’m thankful both pilots survived. We rescued the Chinese pilot and ferried him back to his carrier. This act of good seamanship and general kindness was met with a targeted USS Ronald Reagan and full spin up of the Chinese surface group offensive weapons.
Admiral Hausner aboard the Reagan reciprocated. He was under orders to make his way through the Straits of Taiwan in what we call FONOPs, Freedom Of Navigation Operations. The Chinese surface group was nearing our CCZ, Carrier Control Zone, when we finally got Admiral Ka the Supreme Commander of the Chinese Navy, on the horn.
As I play the conversation back in my mind’s eye, I can hear his gruff voice and imagine his scowl. He berated our pilot and me, saying our actions could be seen as an act of war by the CCP. I told him I would be happy to send him the real-time video of the crash his pilot clearly caused. He declined.
When I suggest we pass each other on opposite sides of the straits minus guns and missiles a breath away from launch, he agreed and ended the call.
“Admiral, are you okay?”
The voice plucks me from my processing, and I find I’m standing outside the door to my office. It is Fleet Master Chief Dean Martin, my senior enlisted advisor who must have followed me back to the office we nicknamed the admin corral.
This office, away from the operations center where the action takes place is truly my administrative home away from home. Plans, budgets, the daily brief, and congressional delegation visits start and stop here.
I like to keep everyone from outside the command out of the operations center, if at all possible, with the exception of my boss, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States.
We step inside the office, and I turn to Martin.“You heard the call with Admiral Ka. Did anything strike you as odd?”
“Now that you mention it, he did seem distracted. Preoccupied might be a more precise label.”
I walk to the windows and relax my eyes, taking in the million-dollar view. 3 miles distant is Ford Island with the Battleship USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial. When my team and I are not making decisions at the speed of light, I like to switch subjects and views.
It lets me slow down and—
That is it… he was preoccupied. That is why he acquiesced so fast.
“I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but he was preoccupied Chief. That’s why he agreed so fast then hung up. There is something going on that we are not seeing.”
Prior to our aircraft crashing into the sea, the Chinese military was engaged in the largest Naval and Air Force exercise we had ever seen. They all but surrounded Taiwan, and we let them posture until the President had enough. That was when we ordered the Reagan into the straits.
“Chief, find General Lewis and tell him I want a Skipjack update ASAP.”
“Put him in the first open spot?” Martin asked, referring to my packed calendar.
“No. June can move everything else.”
“On it,” he said, headed out the door.
US Space Force was on the same floor but in the wing, facing the mountains. Brigadier General Kevin Lewis is the Space Force technical advisor to INDOPACOM. He’s one of the smartest officers I know.
He has a very high IQ but is down to earth, which might seem like a dig but is a complement I don’t hand out to most space jockeys.
Chief Martin and BG Lewis appear in the doorway minutes later.
“As requested, Admiral,” Lewis said. “Do I need my PT clothes?”
“Not today, general, although I’m sure Chief Martin will be disappointed,” I say, shaking his hand. “Have a seat and give me an update on Skipjack.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lewis said and paused.
Behind us the door secured with electro-magnetic clunk. The windows darkened and small displays highlighted we were now operating as a SCIF at the TS/SCI level.
“As you have been briefed, the Skipjack CubeSats are the defense version of the Starlink constellation. At initial operational capability, you will gain fifty times the quantum radar coverage. It will make our adversaries attempt at stealth a waste of money.”
“Much like the arms race where we bankrupted the Russians, this capability lets us push the Chinese into an ineffective cycle of development and spending. One even they cannot afford to maintain,” I say.
“Agreed. On the operational side, we will have unobstructed vision of everything in the sky and on the seas. A leap forward in over-match. On the technical side, we are entering the prototype construction phase awaiting the final build package to be sent from our joint lab to the contractor.”
“How many prototypes are being built, and will all of them be launched?” I ask.
“Six will be built. One orbital unit and ground station will go to IOC, initial operational capability testing, with the integrated Owl cross domain solutions-XD Bridge ST data transfer and the V2CDS full motion video sharing guard. The other will be installed in the ground-based test and troubleshooting rig should a problem arise.”
“Okay, I get why we implemented the XD Bridge ST in the satellite. Its NSAs National Cross Domain Solution Strategy and Management Office or NCDSMO certified and provides high performance and flexible filtering. With it, you can transfer quantum radar data to different levels of classification and programs within those classifications. Why the FMV guard?”
“Different data package and customers. But same idea. One high-speed feed separated into multiple feeds supporting end users at different classifications and with differing data requirements. We’ve packed a lot into a small package. Without it, we’d have an isolated system with no way to distribute intelligence efficiently. The FMV guard does the same as the sensor data for video—delivering real-time, filtered feeds to multiple users with different clearance levels. This is multi-domain dominance at work.”
“How fast can I get four units in space and reporting to us here?”
“Admiral?”
“I have what I believe is an adversary on a path I must alter before it collides with our interests. The P-8 Poseidon I have access to is testing a prototype version of quantum radar but it’s use is limited in area and time on station. We are talking the Pacific. Sixty million square miles. Thirty percent of the earth’s surface. I need that Fifty-X coverage you mentioned. I need Skipjack to avert a war.”
Chapter Two
INDOPACOM Commander’s Conference Room
Camp H. M. Smith Aiea, Hawaii
I’m at a partner meeting with Japan. Their equivalent of our J-6 CIO is speaking to the value of the Owl XD Guardian XML FMS transfer guard and the increased bandwidth they have implemented to improve our Secret-Releasable information sharing. It will also be the partner side secure transfer guard for the data we share from Skipjack.
During some small talk at a break, our Owl based collaboration bridge alerts me that the Secretary of Defense has approved the immediate acceleration of the Skipjack program. It is good news that bypasses 90 days of paperwork and arcane sign off’s.
BG Lewis follows up to let me know the build package has been sent from the joint Navy and Air Force lab CDS via their newly implemented high speed data diodes that can realize up to 100 Gbps to a commercial satellite builder called QuantumSat Systems (QSS). In the past, this would have taken days to sneaker-net then test for malware before uploading to the vendor’s OT network. The new system saves time, reduces errors, and with Type 1 encryption all but negates the potential effects of theft.
Without Owl’s technology, this data would have been vulnerable. The Air Force had selected three commercial vendors to take part in the continued build out of the Blackjack and Skipjack programs.
I was briefed that the company the Air Force selected won the business by demonstrating they had the means to integrate the quantum radar capability into four of the Skipjack CubeSat chassis in 30 days or less.
More good news. The company is on the west coast and a Naval Academy brother of mine is the engineering and IT lead at the company.
#
Two days later it is Friday when Navy Reserve Commander Ryan Dungey, Vice President of Engineering for QSS did me a big favor and drove up the California coast. At Los Angeles Air Force Base, he jumped on an early morning classified video conference call with me using our Owl CDS.
“Ryan, good to see you. How are Linda and the boys?”
“We are well. The twins are growing like weeds, and it’s sports around the clock. Cindy is learning to sail and wants to be a ship driver like her aunt Nikki. Jack is swimming and wants to be an Olympic water polo gold medalist.”
“Sounds hectic, but fun.”
“It is, but speaking of hectic, your world is interesting. I’ve been keeping up best I can via my reserve duty and the only high side connected secure multi domain access console we have.”
“Admiral Ka and Jun like to keep us on our toes. That’s why we need the quantum radar packages transiting the Pacific as soon as possible.”
“Understood. My company went out on a limb and bought the bill of materials prior to winning the bid. That is how I now have four build lines operating around the clock. I’ve inserted the right level of component and assembly level testing to ensure you do not end up with an orbiting brick,” Ryan said.
“I imagine you had some pretty strict physical and cyber security requirements to meet before the Air Force signed off on the contract,” I say.
My Ph.D. is in operations research, how to solve operational problems. But two of my favorite subjects are networking and the cross-domain systems that permit the information sharing we need. I’m not interested in the technical aspects per se, but the wiring and interconnects we need to command and control all phases of operations.
The J-6 CIO jokes I want his job. No thanks!
“My level of cyber security involvement stopped at strong passwords changed often and firewalls until this project,” Ryan said. “Now we operate a tight ship with Owl cross domain guards and diodes so we can operate at the level the Air Force demands. Owl was the only vendor with an NCDSMO certified product that supports data, voice, and video.”
“That is good to hear. One of our counterintelligence friends suggests you are a top priority target for the Chinese MSS, Ministry of State Security,” I say.
“I don’t doubt that. Has your Ziggy Stardust crew figured out how to get the Skipjack’s into orbit.”
“Subtle. Still mad that Space Force took most of the Navy space mission away?”
“100 percent, Admiral. And all the cool billets at the National Reconnaissance Office.”
“They are working it. What are the options?”
“A SpaceX rideshare where the launch can include dozens of other CubeSats. A classified military launch, but that depends on what’s in the queue. And the F-15 rocket into orbit method.”
“What’s likely given our time constraints, SpaceX?” I ask.
“Yes. They are equipped to handle a payload of commercial and classified components.” The marine chronometer on my desk, and my time piece set to the US Naval Observatory atomic clock tell me I need to review the morning brief before I brief the brief to the commander.
“Ryan, I’m sorry to say I have to get back to my day job.”
“Understood. I will keep you abreast of our pro—”
Ryan disappears from the screen. And ten seconds later, he is back.
“I have to go. We’ve suffered a Ransomware attack.”
Chapter Three
QSS, Carlsbad California
The little-known component of China’s MSS presented the targets to their contractor based in a suburb of Hong Kong. Known as Contractor 23, they initiated reconnaissance of the US Air Force’s down-selected companies less than 24 hours after the award was announced. During the scan of the QSS visible network, their network technician had used a firewall configuration error to access the company intranet.
He was already on probation for not following protocol. When his team leader realized he’d penetrated the network without permission, he was quickly replaced by a more senior engineer. She harvested email addresses from employees and the company’s supply chain. Supplier research was undertaken while she implemented PlugX malware to exfiltrate emails and their attachments, a priority.
Credential theft and reuse involving pass-the hash techniques escalated their privileges and provided greater ability to move laterally across networks. However, their attempts to explore a specific vector of the network was met with zero response. Their leader told them to switch to the second of the three companies, the customer was happy with the current exfiltration of data.
Four months of steady state exfiltration later the customer contacted 23’s leader ordering them to go all out on QSS. Something had them agitated, and they wanted every bit of data the company had ever generated. The leader asked for specific targets but was again told to get it all.
Renewed focus brought little results. They owned the visible part of the network but suspected there was more. After a week of no new results his frustrated customer instructed 23 to make them pay. Deployment of the WannaCry cryptoworm spread quickly.
#
By the time Ryan Dungey returned to the office, the IT system was locked up and end user devices displayed the ‘Ooops, your files have been encrypted!’ banner. The IT team had followed procedure and disconnected the company from the Internet and the Owl-protected link to the OT network.
Ryan called FBI field office in Los Angeles, the FBI IC3, and CISA. The leadership team used the template they had created to craft a message to their customers and suppliers.
Most of the administrative staff was given the rest of the day off. The teams working commercial and defense CubeSat projects continued to work without administrative tools.
Analysis of the attack and their IT procedures found minor data loss. The company’s investment in the ransomware recovery vault solution was about to pay off.
An audit of the network found and corrected the firewall issue. The end user devices were rebuilt from a known-good gold disk. The company files were recovered, but before turning it all back on, a deep dive analysis of accounts and associated privileges identified the fraudulent accounts.
Those accounts, the PlugX malware, and other tools hidden in the network and systems were removed prior to turning the IT network back on and connecting to the Internet.
The IT network took the hit, but the critical systems—the ones that mattered—remained secure. The investment in ransomware recovery vault played a role in swift restoration, but the real game-changer was it coupled with Owl’s secure network segmentation. Without it, the Skipjack program would have been dead in the water.
Three days later, QSS was back online, data intact, prototypes still on track. The MSS had tried to delay Skipjack before it launched, giving them time to execute their plan for Taiwan. They failed.
It was Monday at 10am California time when Ryan drove to San Diego to call Admiral Fury from a STE phone at the Secret level over V2CDS.
“Ryan, I hear you are in a good place,” Fury said, picking up the phone on the first ring. “You must be, to call from Information Warfare Systems Command.”
“Ha! Of course you would know. Yes, we are. We never stopped working on the project. The OT network remained secure thanks to our Owl diodes and guard. We didn’t need to pay any ransom, due in large part to our implementation of the ransomware recovery vault solution. It turns out, it had warned us of potential unusual user behavior, but the data was hidden in our SIEM. We’ve made sure that doesn’t happen again. We implemented our recovery plan, cleaned the network, backed up the known good, then connected back to the world and our suppliers.”
“That is great news, Ryan. Space Force has moved a couple of programs for us. We will launch one week after you deliver.”
“The Secretary of Defense’s stamp of approval and criticality rating does hold some weight. Expect weekly updates.”
“Excellent. Go home, take a shower, and get some rest.”
“Yes, ma’am. Out here.”
Admiral Nikki Fury set the handset back in the cradle. “They will make a difference if we get them in time,” she said to no one before letting her EA June know she was heading to the J2 Intelligence Directorate. Heading out the door she saw and corralled Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ama Anderson who had been monitoring the ransomware attack.
“Good news ma’am,” Anderson said.
“Agreed. With Owl’s cross-domain solutions, diodes, and our zero trust security layers, the impossible becomes operational reality. Without Owl, we’d be blind, vulnerable, and at the mercy of an adversary’s first strike. The future of warfare is data-driven, and the ability to securely share, filter, and transfer intelligence is the difference between victory and defeat. With Skipjack, delivered in real-time via Owl, we see everything. We control the battlefield before the first shot is ever fired.”
#
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