Wanted: military systems to benefit from mathematical methods software development for cyber security
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are asking industry to suggest military systems that could benefit from formal mathematical software development to ensure that software code works as intended so as to boost its resilience to enemy attempts at cyber attacks.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued request for information (DARPA-SN-25-55) last week for the DOD Relevant System Nominations to Deliver Resilient Software Systems project.
Mathematical methods
DARPA cyber security researchers are looking for military systems that could benefit from software development tools based on formal mathematical methods to verify mathematically that systems act in ways that are intended, and not in unintentional ways.
The goal is to obtain information about U.S. military systems for which DARPA tools and expertise could improve resilience to adversarial cyber attacks.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) trusted computing practices typically assume that software is always vulnerable to cyber attack, and that the best defense is applying patches as vulnerabilities become known.
Over the past decade, DARPA has produced scalable open-source software design and development tools based on formal mathematical methods that can secure and prove the absence of exploitable vulnerabilities across nearly all military systems. From industry, DARPA researchers would like suggestions on which military systems would benefit from these kinds of tools.
How to make suggestions
Companies interested in making suggestions should email unclassified responses no later than 3 April 2025 to DARPA at [email protected].
Email questions or concerns to DARPA at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/51f34228c0ab4e388c97d33b424bdc3e/view.
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.
