Celebrating our 20th Anniversary!

Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI) is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

We've compiled a timeline highlighting our involvement in some incredible initiatives over the past 20 years.

Setting the stage for this walk back through time is an excerpt from a more detailed article from 2016 about the series of events that led to what would eventually become NUARI.

"Most Americans over a certain age remember where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. For Susmann, it was outside Baltimore, at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade. The NSA had recently designated Norwich as a Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Information Assurance. The following day, Susmann was slated to join Norwich President Richard W. Schneider, retired Gens. Al Gray H'88 and Gordon Sullivan '59, and Carl Guerreri '62, all Norwich trustees. The delegation planned to meet with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to pitch a proposal for a new cybersecurity center at Norwich. "I was in the basement of the NSA with the CAE group when the Towers came down," Susmann recalls. "The next day, we were going to be in the Russell (Senate) Building. But, of course, that was all closed."

Rescheduling their meeting with Leahy until December, Guerreri, Susmann, and Schneider walked the senator through the body of cybersecurity work that had earned Norwich its CAE designation. The Norwich delegates also discussed NU's various projects with the National Guard on cybersecurity education, training, and operations for the Army and Air Force.

The outcome was an earmark in the Justice Reauthorization Act of 2002, creating the National Center for the Study of Counterterrorism and CyberCrime at Norwich."

2003 – The offices of The National Center for the Study of Counterterrorism and Cyber Crime at Norwich University (later NUARI) formally open.

2003 - In October 2003, NUARI participated in Livewire, the first-ever national-level cyber exercise to baseline capabilities and communication paths for responding to a national attack. The exercise involved over 300 participants representing more than 50 organizations across federal, state, and local governments and the private sector.

2007 - The National Center for the Study of Counterterrorism and Cybercrime becomes the Norwich University Applied Research Institutes or NUARI.

2009 – NUARI and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy announce a $15 million contract, of which $6 million was awarded through the Air Force Research Lab in Rome, NY, to fund research to develop Web DECIDE, a wargaming platform for the financial sector.

2011 – NUARI runs Quantum Dawn I, the most extensive critical infrastructure cyber threat exercise with the financial sector at the time.

2013 – U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy announces a 9.9 million Homeland Security contract to NUARI to continue work on the Distributed Environment for Critical Infrastructure Decision-making Exercises (DECIDE^®) simulation software.

2013- NUARI runs Quantum Dawn II with 50 organizations and 500 participants in the financial sector. At this time, it is the only cyber threat exercise of its kind.

2015 – NUARI runs Quantum Dawn III simulation with over 80 financial institutions and government organizations in the most important financial sector cybersecurity exercise in the U.S.

2016 – NUARI deploys the Distributed Environment for Critical Infrastructure Decision-making Exercises - Financial Sector (DECIDE-FS^®) software simulation in South Africa, facilitating a cyber-resiliency response exercise with 16 institutions integral to its financial markets.

2016 - Norwich University Applied Research Institutes' DECIDE-FS^® risk resiliency response software has been nominated by FedScoop 50 as one of the best and brightest technologies.

2017 - NUARI, on behalf of the National Crime Prevention Council, receives a $2.2M FEMA training grant for cybersecurity training for first responders.

2018 - Tokyo's Allied Telesis K.K. partners exclusively with NUARI to launch a new slate of cybersecurity education and training courses, as well as enhanced vulnerability diagnosis and countermeasure services.

2018 - NUARI participates in the National Guard's Cyber Yankee 2018 exercise by providing senior leaders access to the DECIDE^® exercise platform. Cyber Yankee 2018, an exercise between multiple National Guard cyber units and civilian agencies training participants to react and defend some of the area's critical networks against domestic cyber-attacks.

2019 - Norwich University President Richard W. Schneider and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, announce contracts supporting cybersecurity education programs and research at Norwich University. The Army Energy Resilience contract, $499K: Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI) and Norwich's Center for Global Resilience and Security (CGRS) will work with U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) to develop an energy-resilience research track to include issues of cybersecurity. DECIDE Energy Contract, $5.9M funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology and supported by the United States Air Force: To expand the development of this simulation-based cyber exercise tool originally developed by NUARI for the financial sector into the energy sector.

2020 - Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI) is excited to partner with The Army Cyber Institute at West Point for the first completely virtual Jack Voltaic ™ experiment on September 22nd and 24th, 2020. Jack Voltaic 3.0 is a regionally focused exercise that will include participants from the commercial critical infrastructure arena supporting military deployment and global logistics operations. Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, are vital locations that support military force projection. By conducting the Jack Voltaic™ exercise, both cities can gain critical insights and better understand their respective gaps in incident management for a cyber or cyber-enabled disruption or destructive event.

2020 - With growth comes change, and with the development of NUARI's SSC (Security Situation Center), a new home is in order. In the world of cybersecurity, NUARI's SSC most closely resembles a security operations center (SOC). What sets the NUARI SSC apart is that it shares and receives information from federal and state law enforcement partners/agencies for increased protection against threat actors. This mutual transparency enables the SCC to take a more proactive approach to cyber threats on the networks they serve.

2020 - NUARI secures two contracts received under the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Broad Agency Announcement process totaling $1.12 million. The Arctic Microgrid program, worth $625K - work in this initial effort will identify the requirements to characterize, design, simulate and develop plans to prototype and test the cold region's microgrids. NUARI announced that it has moved into Phase 2, worth $499k, of the Energy Resilience Education Track, the design, and Development phase, after completing Phase 1 of the program. NUARI and the Norwich University Center for Global Resilience and Security (CGRS) are developing Energy Resilience education programs along multiple lines of effort under the ERDC Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL).

2021-Norwich University Applied Research Institutes lands $2.9 million federal contract for transportation simulations.

2021 - Norwich lands a $1.6 million grant to develop experiential cybersecurity education. Norwich University will support the National Centers for Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) institutions and their missions by developing and facilitating ten cybersecurity exercises and engaging students for skills competency development and measurement. The exercises will be conducted by NUARI, utilizing its proprietary exercise environment, the DECIDE^® Platform.

2022- During 2022, the cyber security exercise team completed 41 exercises which included 15 exercises with organizations operating in the energy sector and 13 organizations operating in the transportation sector

2022 – It was a busy year at NUARI as efforts to advance and execute our Institutes' priorities continued through our team members' hard work. A highlight of the year was the dedication of the Senator Patrick Leahy School of Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing held during the "U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy Cyber Symposium." Formerly the School of Cybersecurity, Data Science, and Computing, the new name reflects Leahy's longstanding support of cybersecurity education at Norwich University and in Vermont. The symposium was emceed by NUARI President Phil Susmann and brought together U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.; Norwich University President Mark Anarumo, Ph.D.; Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert J. Skinner, Director, Defense Information Systems Agency Commander, Joint Force Headquarters - Department of Defense Information Network (DODIN); Commissioner Michael Harrington, Vermont Department of Labor; distinguished experts and special guests for a day-long discussion on the latest innovations in cybersecurity and the importance of cyber education and workforce development in Vermont.

2022- Bonus content – Check out this story for a more detailed listing of our 2022 activities.