Press Release Johns Hopkins APL Contributions Fuel Critical Navy Cybersecurity System The Navy-engineered Situational Awareness, Boundary Enforcement, and Response (SABER) system, with key capabilities developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in collaboration with government and industry partners, has become a vital line of security in protecting Navy ships against cyberattacks. SABER continuously and autonomously monitors a surface ship’s vital systems for signs of a cyberattack, including its hull, mechanical, and electrical (HM&E), navigation, and combat components. When a potential attack is detected, the system generates alerts that provide crew members with defensive and/or remediation options. The growing threat of cyberattacks on naval vessels, especially smaller ships such as destroyers and frigates, has made it critical to have a reliable system in place not only to protect the nation’s military infrastructure but also to instill confidence in the readiness of those systems for potential future conflicts. “With SABER being deployed to the fleet at large, we are creating tools that will enhance mission assurance in a cyber-contested environment,” said Vamsi Maddula, Cyber Resilient Platforms program manager at APL. Multiple Capabilities, One Mission The APL capabilities underpinning SABER draw on more than a decade of demonstrative events and innovative technical leadership. Many of these capabilities originated in APL’s SEACHANGE initiative, launched in 2016 with three lines of effort: assess situational awareness technologies, establish a prototype and temporary solution based on the technologies used in fleet experiments, and lead a human-systems engineering working group to develop guidance to better enable cyber warfare on a ship. SABER integrates tools developed by the government, APL, and industry partners to form the backbone of shipboard, tactical system cybersecurity. As SABER gains traction as a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) rapid-development capability focused on a subset of ship systems, APL is