DARPA Funding in AI-Assisted Cybersecurity

DARPA is launching a program aimed at vulnerability discovery via human-assisted AI. The new DARPA program is called CHESS (Computers and Humans Exploring Software Security), and they’re holding a proposers day in a week and a half. This is the kind of thing that can dramatically change the offense/defense balance…. Continue reading DARPA Funding in AI-Assisted Cybersecurity

DARPA is looking to avoid another version of Meltdown or Spectre

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has contracted Tortuga Logic to develop hardware security tools that use commercial testing platforms to catch vulnerabilities in computer chips before they are deployed, the firm announced. The goal of the contract, awarded by the Pentagon’s R&D arm, is to prevent a repeat of Meltdown and Spectre, the security vulnerabilities revealed in January that affected virtually all modern computer chips. The contract is part of a DARPA hardware and firmware program that strives to make chips more secure at the “microarchitecture level.” DARPA says the program, which is tackling seven classes of hardware vulnerabilities, supports security methods that limit “hardware to states that are assured to be secure while maintaining the performance and power required for system operation.” Tortuga Logic says it can verify hardware security throughout the design process, arguing in a recent white paper that such verification is much more common in […]

The post DARPA is looking to avoid another version of Meltdown or Spectre appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DARPA is looking to avoid another version of Meltdown or Spectre

DARPA Enlisting Nemo and Dory to Find You

The ocean is a hostile environment for man-made equipment, no matter its purpose. Whether commercial fishing, scientific research, or military operations, salt water is constantly working to break them all down. The ocean is also home to organisms well-adapted to their environment so DARPA is curious if we can leverage their innate ability to survive. The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (yes, our ocean PALS) program is asking for creative ideas on how to use sea life to monitor ocean activity.

Its basic idea is simple: everyday business of life in the ocean are occasionally interrupted by a ship, a submarine, …read more

Continue reading DARPA Enlisting Nemo and Dory to Find You

Huawei tried to acquire technology from the winners of the Cyber Grand Challenge

After seven supercomputers hacked each other on stage at a prominent cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas in August 2016, a Chinese corporation approached U.S. researchers responsible for developing the cutting-edge technology in hopes of acquiring it. The previously unreported but concentrated interest by Huawei Technologies, a company once at the center of a federal investigation and which has come under scrutiny by U.S. spy agencies, came in the form of phone calls and emails sent to select individuals involved in engineering machines that competed in the 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge. ForAllSecure, the company whose team won the challenge, was among those contacted by a representative claiming to be from Huawei. ForAllSecure ignored the advances, according to company CEO David Brumley. The decision was partially driven by a common understanding that Huawei is closely connected to the Chinese government and as such, a relationship with Huawei may negatively impact ForAllSecure’s ability to […]

The post Huawei tried to acquire technology from the winners of the Cyber Grand Challenge appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Huawei tried to acquire technology from the winners of the Cyber Grand Challenge