Communications of the ACM
Dhs Awards $1.3 Million to Small Businesses For Cyber Security R&d
Credit: Vencore
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded $1.3 million to 13 small businesses for the development of new cyber security technology.
Each business was awarded approximately $100,000 in preliminary funding through the DHS S&T Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR proposal solicitation, released in December 2015, included four topics developed by Cyber Security Division program managers to address the research and development needs of DHS components and the homeland security enterprise. Each of these small businesses may be eligible for further development funding based on their initial project results as well as its scientific and technical merit and perceived commercialization potential.
Following are brief explanations of the four research topics and the awarded small businesses for each:
1. Applicability of Blockchain Technology to Identity Management and Privacy Protection: The goal of this topic is to use blockchain technology, which centralizes and validates new entries added into an existing data field to support identity verification. Awardees are:
- Digital Bazaar Inc., Blacksburg, Va., is developing a Linked Data ledger format and architecture to demonstrate how to publish identity credentials.
- Respect Network Corp., Seattle, is developing a decentralized registry and discovery service to integrate with the public blockchain.
- Narf Industries LLC, Washington, D.C., is working to achieve an identity management solution built on a permission-less blockchain: confidentiality (with selective information disclosure), integrity, availability, non-DHS repudiation, provenance, and pseudo-anonymity.
- Celerity Government Solutions LLC, McLean, Va., is researching blockchain solutions to enable users to establish and maintain trusted identity transactions with public and private organizations.
2. Remote Identity Proofing Alternatives to Knowledge-Based Authentication and Verification: The objective of this topic is to design and demonstrate the feasibility of high-assurance alternatives to knowledge-based verification techniques, such as the ability to recall a password, for online identification. Awardees are:
- CardSmart Technologies, Basking Ridge, N.J., is investigating the effectiveness of alternative approaches ranging from a person's online reputation to voice forensics.
- Pomian & Corella LLC, Carmichael, Calif., is exploring innovations including the use of chip-enabled credit cards, federated identity protocols and cryptographic credentials carrying validated attributes.
- PreID Inc., Atherton, Calif., is investigating several new identity-verification approaches to determine strengths and weaknesses (security, privacy, accuracy) and commercial feasibility (cost, time to market, consumer acceptance) of each.
3. Malware Prediction for Situational Understanding and Preemptive Cyber Defense: The goal of this topic is to develop capability to predict and prevent malware. Awardees are:
- BlueRISC Inc., Amherst, Mass., is developing a method to capture network system motion as a predictive indication of potential malicious activity.
- GrammaTech Inc., Ithaca, N.Y., is creating a tool to understand the evolution of malware characteristics and anticipating future malware evolution.
- Red Balloon Security, New York, is developing a hybrid model using long-term malware trend prediction and a short-term approach to monitor malware and capture forensic data to provide real-time predictions.
- ZeroPoint Dynamics LLC, Cary, N.C., is developing techniques for conducting automated analysis of malicious documents and malware and providing enhanced understanding and preemptive malware and exploit defenses.
4. Real‐Time Assessment of Resilience and Preparedness: The objective of this topic is to develop a low-cost, flexible application that can analyze a community's resilience on a near real-time basis and present this information in visual and data formats on mobile and fixed platforms. Awardees are:
- Datanova Scientific LLC, Baltimore, Md., is developing an application for site-specific predictive and proactive risk generation and resilience assessment.
- InferLink Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is developing an end-to-end prototype system for resiliency assessment.
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