BURLINGTON, Mass., 25 April 2008.BAE Systems will develop an "intrinsically secure" mobile military communications network designed to protect against cyber attacks. The company will develop and test network protocols that support the integrity, availability, reliability, confidentiality, and safety of network communications and data.
The $8.5 million contract, awarded through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Intrinsically Assurable Mobile Ad hoc Network (IAMANET) program, targets the security challenges of mobile ad hoc networks. Such networks are particularly susceptible to passive analysis and manipulation by adversaries.
"Cyber security presents a major operational challenge, precisely when our services are becoming increasingly dependent on seamless access to tactical information," says Dr. Nils Sandell Jr., vice president and general manager of advanced information technologies for BAE Systems in Burlington, Mass. "IAMANET allows us to apply our security research to this challenge and provide the military with a secure network that will keep critical, tactical intelligence confidential and flowing."
IAMANET will immunize networks against traditional cyber attacks such as protocol exploits, denial of service, data exfiltration, and propagation of worms.
BAE Systems leads a research team to develop a system that combines recent advances in identity-based encryption, network coding, dynamic access control, and resilient distributed services. The team consists of the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts, Stanford University, the University of Texas and Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs.
Work on the IAMANET contract will be performed at BAE Systems facilities in Burlington, Mass., and Arlington, Va.
