Recognize What's Coming Together — Without Giving Up Control

NOS is designed to help organizations that depend on each other recognize an emerging shared condition, without collecting their underlying operational records.

• Each organization controls its own data and participation.
• Only constrained, purpose-bound signals would be shared.
• Designed to work alongside the systems operators already use.

QGuard is designed to translate outside events, such as a storm, outage, or port disruption, into what they could mean for an organization’s people, facilities, dependencies, and commitments.

• Focuses on operational consequence rather than another alert.
• Puts context in front of people who make the decisions.
• Can provide a local starting point for participation in NOS.

WebS represents NetQube.AI’s proposed direction for web services and supporting infrastructure in connected operational environments.

• Explores infrastructure needs for connected operations.
• Can support organizations with different existing systems.
• Would complement QGuard and NOS as the approach develops.

Infrastructure context is needed to understand how an external event could affect facilities, services, and commitments.

• Maps dependencies that matter to continuity.
• Respects existing operational environments.
• Provides context for local consequence and coordination.

An outside signal becomes useful when an operator can see how it relates to its own dependencies, facilities, and commitments.

• Connects a signal to local context.
• Helps people prioritize what to examine.
• Can inform participation in a shared condition.

The proposed approach is designed so participating organizations retain authority over their underlying operational data, the signals they share, and the decisions they make.

• Keep underlying records under local control.
• Share constrained signals for a defined purpose.
• Put people in charge of action.

During a disruption, unclear dependencies in older systems can make it harder to understand what an external event means for operations.

• Identify consequential dependencies.
• Bring existing systems into the operational picture.
• Support continuity planning without replacing every system.

Operators often need to compare the conditions they are seeing without disclosing their underlying operational records to a shared repository.

• Respect boundaries between organizations.
• Share only signals needed for a defined purpose.
• Look for an emerging condition across those signals.

A cyber incident can disrupt the same people, facilities, and commitments affected by storms or outages. Security teams remain responsible for securing their own systems.

• Consider cyber incidents in the continuity picture.
• Keep existing security controls at each participant.
• Focus shared coordination on operational consequence.

Operations, facilities, suppliers, and response teams may each see part of a disruption before anyone has a shared picture.

• Bring local observations into context.
• Help operators recognize related conditions.
• Leave response decisions with the people involved.

An operator may rely on many facilities, utilities, transport routes, suppliers, and existing software systems.

• Consider dependencies across the operating environment.
• Translate external events into local consequence.
• Design to work alongside existing systems.

No single operator necessarily sees the entire condition developing across interconnected infrastructure.

• Help each participant understand local impact.
• Use constrained signals to support a shared picture.
• Put the emerging condition before human decision makers.

NetQube.AI’s proposed approach starts with the infrastructure, facilities, and services that organizations rely on during disruption.

• Reflect real operational dependencies.
• Work alongside existing environments.
• Support continuity decisions with relevant context.

Organizations should be able to coordinate on an emerging condition while retaining control of their underlying operational data.

• Keep records under each participant’s authority.
• Define the purpose of any shared signals.
• Leave decisions with each organization.

Security tools secure each participant’s systems. NOS is proposed as a coordination protocol above those tools, for conditions that span organizations.

• Keep established controls in place.
• Respect each participant’s security boundaries.
• Coordinate operational signals across those boundaries.

NOS is designed to help independent operators put related observations into a shared operational context.

• Connect conditions across organizations.
• Keep the underlying data with its owner.
• Support people coordinating a response.

QGuard is designed to help an organization interpret how an external event could affect its own operations.

• Make outside information locally relevant.
• Surface dependencies and possible consequences.
• Support human judgment and action.

The proposed approach can be developed in stages as operators, existing systems, and coordination needs change.

• Allow participation to develop in phases.
• Work alongside tools operators already use.
• Keep control of data and decisions with participants.

NOS is a proposed coordination protocol designed to help independent operators recognize a shared emerging condition using constrained signals.

• Underlying operational data stays under local control.
• Participation is purpose-bound.
• People decide how to act.

QGuard is designed to translate outside conditions into what they could mean for one operator’s people, facilities, and commitments.

• Focuses on local operational consequence.
• Helps people interpret what needs attention.
• Can connect to coordination through NOS.

WebS explores the supporting web services and infrastructure needed for connected operational environments.

• Considers existing systems and access needs.
• Supports each organization’s control.
• Complements the proposed QGuard and NOS roles.