“The adversary suffers when you know your platform better than they ever can.”
Organizations must have a deeper understanding of their platforms than the adversaries targeting them, from development to decommissioning.
Module 01 hands-on objectives. Each row maps a LABS component to its KSAT type, (L)EARN to Knowledge, (A)PPLY to Skill, (B)UILD to Ability, (S)IMULATE to Task, so the exam at the end of the module assesses the same competencies the labs build.
| LABS Component | KSAT Type | Statement |
|---|---|---|
| (L)EARN | Knowledge | Knowledge of the five-layer data model (PCE, SEG, SVC, AST, AN), the parent-child ontology that links them, and the taxonomy-element vs enumerated-element distinction. |
| (L)EARN | Knowledge | Knowledge of the five core fields on every enumerated element (LAYER, ELEMENT, LABEL, ORDINAL, DESCRIPTION) and the per-layer additions (PARENT, DISTRIBUTED, SUBSYSTEM, TARGET). |
| (A)PPLY | Skill | Skill in decomposing a platform into PCE, SEG, SVC, and AST enumerated elements, working top-down so each child can name its parent. |
| (A)PPLY | Skill | Skill in writing identifiers correctly in both forms: hyphenated taxonomy element (e.g., PCE-OR) and full colon-form enumerated element (e.g., PCE: OR: Orbital: 00 with description). |
| (B)UILD | Ability | Ability to validate the parent-child ontology end-to-end, every AST traces to a SVC, every SVC to a SEG, every SEG to a PCE, with no orphans. |
| (S)IMULATE | Task | Produce a complete CONOPS structural decomposition for a sample LEO platform: every PCE, SEG, SVC, and AST enumerated, parent links populated, ready for F02 to overlay threats. |
Defenders, threat hunters, detection engineers, IR teams, and partner organizations describe the same platform in different vocabularies. The METEORSTORM data model replaces those parallel dialects with a single, machine-readable structure that every function and every community speaks.
Where, what, and how does the platform exist, and how do my findings attach to it? Every element sits in one of four structural layers and carries a parent-trace back to its physical environment.
Once the platform is enumerated in the model, a detection that fires on an asset is automatically traceable to its service, segment, and environment, no vocabulary translation, no community-specific re-mapping.
PCE → SEG → SVC → AST.AST, the analyst’s starting point.SVC as PARENT; the trace follows that link outward.SEG and PCE, anchoring every element to its physical environment.PCE
PRIMARY CAPABILITY ENVIRONMENT LAYER
Operational zone in which a capability primarily exists or is exercised.
SEG
SEGMENT LAYER
Service and asset enclaves that compose the system across environments.
SVC
SERVICE LAYER
Functional planes that organize control and data responsibilities.
AST
ASSET LAYER
Asset classes composing the system and its interfaces.
The data model is built from two complementary languages. Taxonomy fixes the vocabulary, the words you are allowed to use. Ontology fixes the relationships between the things named by that vocabulary. The framework needs both.
One controlled vocabulary, shared inside and outside your organisation. Cyber, space ops, engineering, vendors, peer operators, and Space ISAC all use the same words for the same things, no private dialects, no translation tax.
PCE · 5 elements: TE Terrestrial, AQ Aquatic, AE Aerial, OR Orbital, DS Deep Space.SEG · 10 elements: LA Launch, LI Link, GR Ground, US User, AQ Aquatic, LO Low Altitude, HI High Altitude, NE Near Space, SP Space, DE Deep Space.SVC · 3 elements: CP Control Plane, DP Data Plane, HY Hybrid.AST · 6 elements: HW Hardware, FW Firmware, SW Software, DA Data, SI Signal, HY Hybrid.Rules for how elements relate. The four structural layers form a strict parent-child chain.
PCE is the root, no PARENT. Every other layer traces back to one or more PCE instances.SEG’s PARENT is one or more PCE instances.SVC’s PARENT is one or more SEG instances.AST’s PARENT is exactly one SVC.This module covers the four structural layers, the parts of the platform you decompose. The fifth layer, the Analytic Layer, sits on top of those four and carries what defenders observe and build. We introduce it here and use it throughout Modules 02 through 05.
PCEPrimary Capability EnvironmentThe operational zone where the platform physically lives and works.
The question it answers: Where does the platform physically operate?
Five environments: Terrestrial, Aquatic, Aerial, Orbital, Deep Space.
SEGSegmentA self-contained piece of the platform that plays a specific operational role.
The question it answers: What role does this part of the platform play?
Ten segments: Launch, Link, Ground, User, Aquatic, Low Altitude, High Altitude, Near Space, Space, Deep Space.
SVCServiceThe functional plane a segment runs on, how it controls things or how it moves data.
The question it answers: What capability does this part deliver?
Three services: Control Plane, Data Plane, Hybrid.
ASTAssetThe concrete things that make a service work, the hardware, code, data, and signals.
The question it answers: Which concrete things implement the capability?
Six asset classes: Hardware, Firmware, Software, Data, Signal, Hybrid.
ANAnalytic (overlay)A separate layer for what defenders observe and build. It does not describe the platform, it attaches to the four structural layers above.
The question it answers: What do defenders know, see, and do about the platform?
Six categories: indicators (IOC, IOA), adversary behavior (ATT, THR), defenses (DET, RES).
An enumerated element is one specific instance on your platform, a particular ground station, a particular service, a particular asset. Every enumerated element, at any layer, uses the same five core fields. Once you know these five, the rest of Module 01 is just variations on this single shape. (The shorter taxonomy element form, the abstract category, is covered next.)
LAYER
SEG
ELEMENT
GR
LABEL
Ground
ORDINAL
00
DESCRIPTION
“Primary ground station at Site A. Hosts the on-board control plane (SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00); fails over to the secondary ground station (SEG: GR: Ground: 01).”
LAYER
Which of the five layers this enumerated element sits in: PCE (environment), SEG (segment), SVC (service), AST (asset), or AN (analytic).
Field 1 of 5 · required on every enumerated element.
ELEMENT
The two-letter code that names the element within the layer (for example TE for Terrestrial, GR for Ground, CP for Control Plane, HW for Hardware, IOC for Indicator of Compromise). Always picked from the published list, never invented.
Field 2 of 5 · required on every enumerated element.
LABEL
The plain-English name that goes with the two-letter code, for example, Terrestrial for TE, Ground for GR, Indicator of Compromise for IOC.
Field 3 of 5 · required on every enumerated element.
ORDINAL
A two-digit number, starting at 00, that tells multiple instances of the same element apart. The first ground station is SEG-GR-00, the second is SEG-GR-01, and so on.
Field 4 of 5 · required on every enumerated element.
DESCRIPTION
A short, free-text note about this specific instance: what it is, where it is, what role it plays, and anything later work will need to know. The description is what turns a generic code into a concrete piece of your platform.
Field 5 of 5 · required on every enumerated element.
Every element appears in two forms. A taxonomy element names the category, written hyphenated, e.g. PCE-OR (any orbital environment). An enumerated element names one specific instance on your platform, written with all five fields, e.g. PCE: OR: Orbital: 00, “Our LEO constellation orbit.” Use the hyphen form when you mean “any of these”; use the full form when you mean “this exact one.”
The category. Written LAYER-ELEMENT (hyphenated). Use it in prose to refer to any element of that type.
PCE-OR
“Every PCE-OR entry needs a conjunction-risk feed.”, talking about orbital environments in general.
SEG-SP
“SEG-SP assets share the orbital safety boundary.”, the space-segment category.
SVC-CP
“Every SVC-CP service is in scope for command-link integrity.”
AST-SW
“AST-SW elements must enter SBOM tracking.”
One specific instance. Written LAYER: ELEMENT: LABEL: ORDINAL with a description. Use it when citing this exact item on your platform.
PCE: OR: Orbital: 00
“PCE: OR: Orbital: 00 is our LEO constellation orbit.”
SEG: SP: Space: 00
“SEG: SP: Space: 00, our LEO bus space segment.”
SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00
“SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00 is the on-board command-and-control plane.”
AST: SW: Software: 03
“AST: SW: Software: 03, the AI scheduler model running on the spacecraft.”
An ontology element is the wiring between two enumerated elements, the link that says “this thing belongs to that thing.” In METEORSTORM, the ontology element is the PARENT field. Every enumerated element below the top of the tree names its parent, and together those ontological relationships build one platform tree that any finding can be traced through. There are exactly three structural relationships: PCE → SEG (each segment’s parent is an environment), SEG → SVC (each service’s parent is a segment), and SVC → AST (each asset’s parent is a service). PCE sits at the top and has no parent, it is the root.
AST: HW: Hardware: 03
A specific enumerated element: LAYER: ELEMENT: LABEL: ORDINAL. A detection fires on this asset.
PARENT → SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00
SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00
The control-plane service that hosts the asset. The trace follows its PARENT outward.
PARENT → SEG: GR: Ground: 00
SEG: GR: Ground: 00
The ground segment hosting that service. One step closer to the physical environment.
PARENT → PCE: TE: Terrestrial: 00
PCE: TE: Terrestrial: 00
The terrestrial site the platform operates from. PCE is the root: no parent.
PARENT → none (root)
Decompose your platform top-down: enumerate every PCE first, then every SEG, then every SVC, and finally every AST. Each child element needs its parent enumerated first, otherwise the PARENT link has nowhere to point. Within each element, the seven-step procedure below is identical at every layer; only which steps apply changes (PCE has no PARENT; SVC adds DISTRIBUTED; AST adds optional SUBSYSTEM).
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
01 · PICK LAYER
Decide which decomposition layer the new element lives in: PCE, SEG, SVC, or AST.
EXAMPLE: A spacecraft bus is a physical asset, LAYER = AST.
02 · SELECT ELEMENT
Choose one taxonomy value from that layer’s published vocabulary.
EXAMPLE: AST options are HW, FW, SW, DA, SI, HY. The bus is hardware → ELEMENT = HW.
03 · WRITE LABEL
Write the standard human-readable label that matches the ELEMENT.
EXAMPLE: The label for HW is LABEL = Hardware.
04 · ASSIGN ORDINAL NUMBER
Two-digit number starting at 00; increment for each additional instance of the same element.
EXAMPLE: First spacecraft bus → ORDINAL = 00. Second → 01.
05 · LINK PARENT
The instance(s) at the layer above. PCE elements skip this step.
EXAMPLE: The bus is hosted by the on-board control plane → PARENT = SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00.
06 · OPTIONAL FIELDS
DISTRIBUTED for SVC; SUBSYSTEM for AST. Skip if not applicable.
EXAMPLE: Group related AST entries: SUBSYSTEM = Bus.
07 · WRITE DESCRIPTION
Human-readable name for the role, location, redundancy posture, interfaces, and operational context downstream functions need.
“Spacecraft bus for LEO constellation, vendor X, in PCE: OR: Orbital: 00; runs flight software v3.2.”
Taxonomy gives the element a name. Ontology gives it a position. Annotation, the DESCRIPTION field, is what makes the element useful to downstream functions. A weak description forces the next analyst to re-derive context the original enumerator already knew.
“Antenna.”
“13 m S-band parabolic, Vendor X model 7400, primary uplink for SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00 at SEG: GR: Ground: 00; SUBSYSTEM=Antenna; jurisdictionally licensed by ITU; backup is AST: HW: Hardware: 04 at SEG: GR: Ground: 01. Loss takes uplink offline.”
PCE is the root of decomposition. It captures the physical environment in which the platform, or some portion of it, operates. Every other entry in the model, every segment, service, asset, traces back through parent references to one or more PCE instances.
PCE-TE
PCE: TE: Terrestrial: 00Surface-based operational zones on planetary bodies.
ELEMENT 1 OF 5
PCE-AQ
PCE: AQ: Aquatic: 00Water-based operational zones, including maritime domains.
ELEMENT 2 OF 5
PCE-AE
PCE: AE: Aerial: 00Atmospheric operational zones spanning low, high, and near-space regions.
ELEMENT 3 OF 5
PCE-OR
PCE: OR: Orbital: 00Operational zones within planetary or satellite orbits.
ELEMENT 4 OF 5
PCE-DS
PCE: DS: Deep Space: 00Operational zones beyond planetary orbital regimes.
ELEMENT 5 OF 5
Surface-based operational zones on planetary bodies. Captures the physical real estate, regulatory jurisdiction, and terrestrial weather context for any portion of the platform anchored to a planet or moon’s surface.
Any portion of the platform, control center, antenna farm, data center, manufacturing facility, launch pad, sits on the ground of a planetary body. One PCE-TE-NN per distinct surface site. Geographic separation matters: a primary and a backup ground complex are typically separate ordinals so failover analysis stays clean.
Water-based operational zones, including maritime surface, sub-surface, and littoral environments. Captures the portion of a platform that floats on, sails through, or operates beneath the water column.
Elements of the platform sit on, in, or under water as a primary operating zone, not transiting. Subsea cabling, downrange recovery vessels, sea-launch barges, and undersea sensor networks all live here. Maritime jurisdiction, sea-state telemetry, and acoustic environment data attach to PCE-AQ elements.
Atmospheric operational zones spanning low altitude, high altitude, and near-space regions of a planetary atmosphere. Aerial PCE captures the medium; segments later refine the altitude band an asset actually lives in.
Any portion of the platform operates within an atmosphere but not on or beneath a surface, drones, balloons, HAPS / LAPS, near-space vehicles, transit aircraft. Atmospheric weather, civil aviation jurisdiction, and electromagnetic propagation context all attach to PCE-AE.
Operational zones within planetary or satellite orbits, from LEO through GEO and lunar orbit. Anything held in orbit by the gravity of a single primary body lives here.
A portion of the platform is in orbit, satellites, on-orbit servicing vehicles, propellant depots, orbital relays. Space-weather feeds, orbital debris environment data, conjunction risk, and SDA correlate against PCE-OR elements. One ordinal per orbital regime where ops differ materially (e.g. LEO bus vs. GEO relay).
Operational zones beyond planetary orbital regimes, interplanetary cruise, Lagrange points, asteroid encounters, and trans-lunar space. The distinguishing test is gravitational dominance: when no single primary body controls the trajectory, the asset is in deep space.
A portion of the platform operates outside the gravitational regime of a single planet or moon, deep-space probes, interplanetary transit vehicles, Lagrange-point observatories. Communication latency, DSN scheduling, and cislunar / interplanetary navigation context attach here.
SEG decomposes the platform along the operational lines an adversary would use when selecting a target. Each segment is an enclave of services and assets that play one architectural role, launch, link, ground, user, space, and so on, within one or more PCE environments.
SEG-LA
SEG: LA: Launch: 00Surface-based services and assets for primary launch operations.
ELEMENT 1 OF 10
SEG-LI
SEG: LI: Link: 00Services and assets enabling platform communications across signal paths.
ELEMENT 2 OF 10
SEG-GR
SEG: GR: Ground: 00Surface-based services and assets for primary platform operations, serving as the primary locus of control plane activity.
ELEMENT 3 OF 10
SEG-US
SEG: US: User: 00Services and assets for primary end-user operations.
ELEMENT 4 OF 10
SEG-AQ
SEG: AQ: Aquatic: 00Water-based services and assets for primary platform operations.
ELEMENT 5 OF 10
SEG-LO
SEG: LO: Low Altitude: 00Aerial services and assets in the lower atmosphere.
ELEMENT 6 OF 10
SEG-HI
SEG: HI: High Altitude: 00Aerial services and assets above the lower atmosphere but below near space.
ELEMENT 7 OF 10
SEG-NE
SEG: NE: Near Space: 00Aerial services and assets above high altitude and below orbital regions.
ELEMENT 8 OF 10
SEG-SP
SEG: SP: Space: 00Services and assets operating in planetary or satellite orbits.
ELEMENT 9 OF 10
SEG-DE
SEG: DE: Deep Space: 00Services and assets operating beyond planetary orbital regimes.
ELEMENT 10 OF 10
Surface-based services and assets dedicated to primary launch operations, the people, hardware, software, and procedures that put the platform into the air or into orbit.
Capturing pre-launch and launch-day operations: vehicle integration, range safety, propellant handling, launch control, and the brief but critical window when the platform is most exposed to physical and supply-chain attack. Typically parents to one PCE-TE instance.
Services and assets that enable platform communications across signal paths, RF, optical, or hard-wired. Link is the connective tissue of the platform, and one of the adversary’s primary kill-chain choke points.
Capturing the path that carries telemetry, command, or mission product between segments, TT&C uplink and downlink, inter-satellite links, ground backhaul. Each major path is its own SEG-LI element so jamming, interception, and degradation analysis can target a specific link.
Surface-based services and assets that form the primary control-plane locus for the platform, the operational center of gravity for command, monitoring, and mission planning.
Capturing the persistent control footprint, the antennas, racks, networks, and operators that fly the platform day-to-day. Primary and backup ground complexes are usually separate ordinals (SEG-GR-00, SEG-GR-01) so failover paths model cleanly.
Services and assets that serve primary end-user operations, the destination for the platform’s mission product. User segment captures the consumption side of the platform, distinct from the operator-side Ground segment.
Capturing where the mission output is consumed, operator terminals in the field, downstream tasking clients, end-user devices. Users may be internal (warfighter, scientist) or external (commercial subscriber); both attach as SEG-US with their PCE enumerated accordingly.
Water-based services and assets dedicated to primary platform operations. The segment-level counterpart to PCE-AQ: PCE-AQ is the environment, SEG-AQ is the operational role being played in that environment.
Capturing portions of the platform that perform their primary operational role in or under the water, subsea cabling, recovery vessels, ocean-deployed sensors. Treats maritime as a first-class segment type instead of forcing it into a Ground or Link analogue.
Aerial services and assets operating in the lower atmosphere, typically below the upper bound of civil aviation. Captures drones, comms aircraft, and chase platforms that share airspace with civilian flight operations.
Capturing platform elements that fly within civil aviation altitudes and inherit civil aviation jurisdiction (FAA, EASA, etc.). Adversary considerations: GPS denial, cellular interference, ATC deconfliction.
Aerial services and assets operating above the lower atmosphere but below near space, the regime of stratospheric balloons, U-class observation aircraft, and long-endurance solar UAVs.
Capturing high-altitude platforms that operate above commercial flight ceilings but still within an atmosphere. Adversary considerations: long persistence, restricted access for kinetic intercept, sensitivity to upper-atmosphere weather.
Aerial services and assets above high altitude but below orbital regions, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Home to HAPS (High-Altitude Platform Stations) and persistent stratospheric relays.
Capturing near-space platforms that act as quasi-orbital relays without orbital mechanics, persistent station-keeping over a target region, low latency to ground, no need to wait for a satellite pass. Increasingly relevant as commercial HAPS comes online.
Services and assets operating in planetary or satellite orbits, the on-orbit element of the platform. The most familiar segment in classical space-systems decomposition, but here it is one role among ten, not the whole sky.
Capturing on-orbit platform elements and the services they deliver, satellite buses, payload modules, on-orbit servicing vehicles, formation-flying companions. Distinguish bus, payload, and supporting craft as separate ordinals when their threat exposure differs.
Services and assets operating beyond planetary orbital regimes. Captures mission elements that live in interplanetary space, at Lagrange points, or beyond lunar orbit, where communication latency, DSN scheduling, and autonomy dominate the threat model.
Capturing platform elements operating beyond cislunar orbit. Long round-trip light times mean these segments lean heavily on autonomous decision-making, expanding the attack surface for command-spoofing and onboard-AI manipulation.
SVC decomposes the functional capabilities the platform delivers across its segments. The taxonomy is deliberately compact, three values, so the model stays stable while permitting organization-specific nesting beneath. A service that runs across more than one segment stays a single element marked DISTRIBUTED: Y.
SVC-CP
SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00Services for managing and orchestrating platform control functions.
ELEMENT 1 OF 3
SVC-DP
SVC: DP: Data Plane: 00Services for managing and orchestrating mission product functions.
ELEMENT 2 OF 3
SVC-HY
SVC: HY: Hybrid: 00Services integrating both control and data plane functionalities.
ELEMENT 3 OF 3
Services for managing and orchestrating platform control functions, command, monitoring, configuration, telemetry processing, fault detection. Control plane services move command and state, not mission product.
Capturing capabilities whose purpose is to control, configure, monitor, or recover the platform itself. The control plane is where many adversaries pivot once they reach a foothold, decomposing it cleanly is what makes lateral-movement detection feasible.
Services for managing and orchestrating mission-product functions, payload processing, data product generation, downstream delivery. Data plane services move what the mission exists to produce.
Capturing capabilities whose purpose is to process, store, or deliver mission product, not to manage the platform itself. The data plane is the most attractive integrity-attack surface, the same data may underwrite operational decisions worth far more than the spacecraft.
Services that integrate both control-plane and data-plane functionality in a single coherent capability. Reserved for cases where the two planes genuinely cannot be separated without distorting the architecture.
A service genuinely owns both responsibilities and a forced split would create two phantom elements that re-merge in operations, edge mission processors, integrated tasking + downlink stacks, convergent cloud-native ground segments. Default to CP or DP first; reach for HY only when the integration is real.
AST decomposes the concrete elements that implement services. Six material categories cover the full surface of a complex platform, hardware, firmware, software, data, signal, and hybrid composites. Optional SUBSYSTEM groups assets that jointly deliver a single service.
AST-HW
AST: HW: Hardware: 00Physical elements supporting platform operations.
ELEMENT 1 OF 6
AST-FW
AST: FW: Firmware: 00Embedded control code governing hardware functions.
ELEMENT 2 OF 6
AST-SW
AST: SW: Software: 00Applications and logic executing operational tasks.
ELEMENT 3 OF 6
AST-DA
AST: DA: Data: 00Information generated, processed, or consumed by the platform.
ELEMENT 4 OF 6
AST-SI
AST: SI: Signal: 00Communication channels and transmission frequencies.
ELEMENT 5 OF 6
AST-HY
AST: HY: Hybrid: 00Composite elements combining multiple asset types.
ELEMENT 6 OF 6
Physical elements supporting platform operations, electronic, mechanical, optical, electromagnetic. The tangible parts of the platform that can be inventoried, photographed, and physically touched.
Capturing physical assets that exist in space or on the ground. Granularity is a judgment call: enumerate at the level where a different make/model or vendor would change the threat picture, not at the level of individual screws.
Embedded control code governing hardware functions, code that ships with hardware, runs at boot, and lives below the operating system. Firmware is a frequent supply-chain attack surface and one of the hardest layers to patch in the field.
Capturing code that is installed on or with hardware, BIOS / UEFI, FPGA bitstreams, baseband modems, peripheral controllers. Enumerating firmware separately from the host hardware makes vendor-supplied vulnerabilities (and patch cadence) visible at the data-model level.
Applications and logic executing operational tasks, user-mode, kernel-mode, container, microservice. Software runs above firmware and delivers service-level capability, the layer where most of the vulnerability disclosures live.
Capturing distinct software elements a defender would patch, monitor, or replace independently, mission planning app, payload processor, telemetry parser, web console. Granularity should map to upgrade boundaries: if it ships and patches separately, it’s its own asset.
Information generated, processed, or consumed by the platform. Data is a first-class asset, not a second-class observable. Mission product, configuration, key material, and ephemeris all enumerate alongside hardware and software.
Capturing the data products themselves and the operational data the platform handles, mission product files, configuration baselines, key material, ephemeris, customer ground truth. Treating data as an asset is what makes integrity-first detection engineering possible.
Communication channels and transmission frequencies used by the platform. Signal is a first-class asset: detection engineering for jamming, spoofing, and signal-level intrusion lives inside the same enumeration as the hardware that emits it.
Capturing the RF, optical, or wired signals that carry command and product, uplink frequencies, downlink bands, optical inter-satellite links, fiber backhaul circuits. Each major signal path is its own asset so signal-level threats correlate cleanly to it.
Composite elements combining multiple asset types, sealed appliances, vendor-delivered subsystems, integrated mission boxes. Reserved for cases where decomposing further would lose architectural meaning or exceed what the supplier exposes.
An asset’s hardware, firmware, software, data, and signal cannot be usefully separated for the purpose at hand, e.g. a sealed crypto module, a delivered ground rack, a black-box payload. Default to the specific asset class first; reach for HY only when the integration genuinely cannot be decomposed.
Each entry elements its parent, the entry at the layer immediately above. A detection that fires on an asset is automatically traceable to the service it implements, the segment that hosts it, and the environment it sits in.
PCEPRIMARY CAPABILITY ENVIRONMENTPCE is the root of the decomposition. No PARENT field.
(none, PCE is root)
LAYER 1 OF 5
SEGSEGMENTEvery SEG entry elements one or more PCE instances as its PARENT.
PCE: TE: Terrestrial: 00
LAYER 2 OF 5
SVCSERVICEEvery SVC entry elements one or more SEG instances as its PARENT.
SEG: GR: Ground: 00
LAYER 3 OF 5
ASTASSETEvery AST entry elements exactly one SVC instance as its PARENT.
SVC: CP: Control Plane: 00
LAYER 4 OF 5
ANANALYTIC OVERLAYAN is not in the parent-child chain. It attaches to structural elements via TARGET fields (TOE, TDM, TRE).
TOE = AST: HW: Hardware: 03
LAYER 5 OF 5 · OVERLAY
The Analytic Layer (AN) does not describe the platform. It describes what an analyst knows, or needs to know, about the platform’s security posture. Every analytic entry attaches via TARGET fields to one or more structural elements.
AN-IOC
AN: IOC: Indicator of Compromise: 00Verifiable indication that the platform has been compromised.
QUESTION: Has there been a confirmed compromise?
SUB-CATEGORY 1 OF 6 · FUNCTIONS 2–4
AN-IOA
AN: IOA: Indicator of Attack: 00Verifiable indication that the platform has been targeted.
QUESTION: Is there a confirmed attack underway?
SUB-CATEGORY 2 OF 6 · FUNCTIONS 2–4
AN-ATT
AN: ATT: Attack Path: 00Known or modeled attack path for a converged space system.
QUESTION: Is there an active attack path?
SUB-CATEGORY 3 OF 6 · FUNCTION 3
AN-THR
AN: THR: Threat: 00Known adversarial threat to the platform.
QUESTION: Is there a confirmed active threat?
SUB-CATEGORY 4 OF 6 · FUNCTION 2
AN-DET
AN: DET: Detection Signature: 00Pattern, signal, or logic that triggers on contextualized threat behavior.
QUESTION: Is there a confirmed detection gap?
SUB-CATEGORY 5 OF 6 · FUNCTION 3
AN-RES
AN: RES: Resilience Measure: 00Protective capability ensuring resistance or recovery from threats, for either immediate implementation or as feedback for future platform engineering efforts.
QUESTION: What resilience measures should we add?
SUB-CATEGORY 6 OF 6 · FUNCTION 4
Decomposition done. Module 02 attaches threats to the structural element you just built.
A 20-question multiple-choice exam, drawn at random from a 60-question bank. Aligned with Module 01 KSAT areas. Save your results as a PDF when you finish.
20 questions, drawn at random from a 60-question bank, aligned with Module 01 KSAT areas: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Tasks. Question and answer order are randomized each session.