[LEAPSECS] Executive Order on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services

[Jonathan Hardis]

> On Feb 13, 2020, at 9:14 AM, Seaman, Robert Lewis - (rseaman) <rseaman at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Interesting! A few immediate comments / questions:
> 
> 1) Political talk to /dev/null
> 2) Whether as executive order or otherwise, language like this obviously originated with experts.
> 3) Does anybody know what agenc(ies) appears to be motivating this?

The NSC coordinated inputs from many agencies, such as DHS, which has the responsibility to protect critical infrastructure.

> 4) Are commercial interests involved?

This is an open ended question because one can play “six degrees of separation.”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation  The short answer is no—it originated within Government.

> 5) Are similar actions being taken in Canada or other countries?

Nothing analogous to an executive order to my knowledge, but NPL in the UK offers something similar.  https://www.npl.co.uk/npltime

> 6) Is PNT singled out, or are there similar orders for other technologies and risk profiles?

There are those in Government who view GPS insecurity as an example of, or analogous to, an IT security problem. Civilian GPS receivers receive unencrypted signals over-the-air and implicitly trust the data.  The idea here is apply the NIST Cybersecurity Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIST_Cybersecurity_Framework to this problem through the creation of “profiles.” So yes—one can say that this is one technology among many, though I don’t know if other EOs mandate use of the Cybersecurity Framework in other areas.

> 7) I don't see "leap second" or terms like "NTP" mentioned here.

Right.

> Six months is remarkably aggressive, even notionally, and there's no definition of what "source of UTC" means, or even "GNSS-independent". Is some specific technology or even vendor already implied?

It’s a reference to this:  https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?viewState=DetailView&cartID=&portalUser=&store=&cclcl=en_US&sku=78110S


     - Jonathan




> 
> Rob Seaman
> University of Arizona
> --
> 
> 
> On 2/13/20, 6:47 AM, "LEAPSECS on behalf of Richard Langley" <leapsecs-bounces at leapsecond.com on behalf of lang at unb.ca> wrote:
> 
>   "(i)  Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce shall make available a GNSS-independent source of Coordinated Universal Time, to support the needs of critical infrastructure owners and operators, for the public and private sectors to access."
> 
>   https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-strengthening-national-resilience-responsible-use-positioning-navigation-timing-services/
> 
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>   | Richard B. Langley                            E-mail: lang at unb.ca         |
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