Communications of the ACM
DARPA Calls on Diyers For Weaponized Tech
A government agency wants to determine ways in which products made with relatively benign technologies may re-assembled in ways that constitute security threats.
Credit: Government Computer News
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the Improv program, which will seek ideas on how products assembled from relatively benign technologies might be transformed into security threats.
The Improv program aims to quickly surface and prototype devices made from off-the-shelf electronics or open source code that can cost-effectively deliver sophisticated military technologies and capabilities. Improv is designed to address the fact that the U.S. no longer enjoys a near-monopoly on access to the most advanced technologies.
DARPA is encouraging participation from a wide range of sectors, including anyone who can reconfigure, reprogram, modify, or recombine commercially available technology. "Improv is being launched in recognition that strategic surprise can also come from more familiar technologies, adapted and applied in novel ways," says Improv program manager John Main.
Improv consists of three phases in which DARPA will fund selected proposals, evaluate the prototypes, and advance the relevant capabilities in separate follow-up efforts.
From Government Computer News
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