Researchers ask two companies to improve security for "weird" covert intelligence communications networks

Questions and answers:

• What is the goal of DARPA’s PWND2 program? It aims to improve deployment and detection of covert hidden communications networks -- also known as weird networks -- for military and intelligence use.
• Which companies received contracts for PWND2? Stealth Software Technologies received $3.8 million, and SRI International received $3.6 million.
• What will Stealth Software and SRI develop under the PWND2 program? They will create a domain-specific language and analysis tools to model and verify the performance, scalability, privacy, and security of hidden communications systems.

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are hiring two technology companies to improve the security and capabilities of covert hidden communications networks for military and intelligence applications.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., named two companies last week for the Provably Weird Network Deployment and Detection (PWND2) program.

The companies are Stealth Software Technologies Inc. in Los Angeles, and SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif. Stealth Software won a $3.8 million contract and SRI won a $3.6 million contract.

PWND2 will develop models and tools to improve the deployment and detection of hidden communication networks -- also known as weird networks -- for military and intelligence use.

Hidden communications

Hidden communication systems are essential to national security, yet their design approaches are inadequate today, with no guarantees that users will remain hidden, DARPA researchers say.

Hidden communication systems, often referred to as covert channels, transmit information secretly without detection for stealth and privacy beyond simple encryption. They are designed to conceal that any communication is occurring.

The current approach is slow and uncertain, and provides only temporary advantages, researchers say. Furthermore, hidden communications networks are expensive to test and validate. Instead, PWND2 is asking Stealth Software and SRI to model weird networks to improve how to deploy and detect hidden networks in the real world.

The project asks Stealth Software and SRI to test how software-defined networking pairs with formal methods to provide provable privacy and performance guarantees for hidden communication systems at meaningful scale.

Tell me more about weird networks ...

• Weird networks are unconventional, covert, and hard-to-detect communications networks designed to be deniable, stealthy, unpredictable, and resilient. They are difficult to prove they even exist; avoid detection even by sophisticated electronic surveillance; avoid standard patterns; and survive or adapt to disruption, electronic warfare (EW) jamming, or active electronic attack. A weird network doesn't look or act like a normal network, and may use unusual protocols, hidden data channels, low-probability-of-intercept radio signals, or piggyback on civilian communications to avoid detection and tracking.

A weird network enables emergent unintended communications outside the original specification of a network, and can represent any form of hidden or confusing communications -- including an application running over the weird network; the actual weird network; the underlying traditional network that the weird network emerged from; and the capabilities of the adversary.

Stealth Software and SRI experts will create a new domain-specific language and analysis tools to verify weird network performance, scalability, security, and privacy.

The companies will develop a domain-specific language able to model emergent hidden communications; and develop analysis tools to examine hidden communications systems.

For more information contact Stealth Software Technologies online at www.stealthsoftwareinc.com, SRI International at www.sri.com, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil/research/programs/provably-weird-network.