DARPA taps Boeing to write cyber-defense software

Software engineers at the Boeing Phantom Works Division Directorate in Seattle are developing software to defend against information warfare attacks across several different computer domains. The 20-month $2.8 million project, called Multi-Community Cyber Defense, will develop software that automatically responds to intrusions into computer networks that typically operate with different security policies and procedures. Officials of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., awarded the contract to Boeing on behalf of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Va. Top administrators of computer systems in different countries and even in different companies rarely trust one another, which complicates coordinated defenses against cyber attacks — a problem that Boeing specialists will try to correct. — J.K.