Army asks Perspecta Labs for autonomous cyber defenses to tactical networks using artificial intelligence
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND Md. – U.S. Army trusted-computing experts needed autonomous cyber defenses for tactical networks and communications that capitalize on artificial intelligence and machine learning. They found their solution from Perspecta Labs Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., announced a $14.5 million five-year contract to Perspecta (formerly Vencore Labs) on Tuesday for the Autonomous Defensive Cyber Operation project.
Army researchers are asking Perspecta for cyber technology to secure automated network decisions and defend against adaptive autonomous cyber attackers at machine speed.
The Army Contracting Command is awarding this cyber defenses contract to Perspecta on behalf of the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD).
Related: Military cyber security: threats and solutions
Overall, S&TCD envisions a combination of several artificial intelligence and machine learning products that deliver autonomous cyber defense capabilities. Specifically, researchers are looking for cyber and trusted computing enabling technologies for:
-- autonomous detection and mitigation of known cyber vulnerabilities;
-- ways to identify and correct misconfigurations autonomously in networks and hosts;
-- ways to detect known and previously unknown malware samples autonomously;
-- tools and methodologies for red team autonomous decision making engines;
-- ways to improve robustness of autonomous decision engines to manipulate attackers;
-- machine learning-based cyber agents tailored to specific tactical networks, data flows, and message sets that can detect and deduce the intent of an attack;
-- an interface that capitalizes on human in the loop feedback to autonomous decision engines to improve the performance and efficiency of human-machine teams; and
-- new ways to correlate cyber response recommendations and generate a course of action based on available cyber tools and cyber events.
On this contract Perspecta will do the work in Basking Ridge, N.J., and should be finished by March 2025. For more information contact Perspecta Labs online at www.perspectalabs.com, or the Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-apg.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
