Rockwell Collins and HACMS team to secure DARPA platforms from cyberattacks
NewsApril 25, 2017
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected a team led by Rockwell Collins to use mathematics-based development methods to secure platforms against cyberattack. Such methods, developed by Rockwell Collins and its partners in DARPA?s High Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) program, are aimed at strengthening cyber resilience by eliminating important classes of system vulnerabilities.
The Rockwell Collins HACMS team -- which also includes computer firm Galois, Australian data-research network Data 61, engineering lab HRL, and the University of Minnesota -- developed technologies to achieve a very high level of cyber resilience, including architectural modeling and analysis, a secure microkernel, and automatic generation of the application code. Each initiative uses mathematical reasoning to ensure the absence of vulnerabilities that could be exploited during a cyberattack, thereby improving the safety and security of critical electronic systems in military and commercial platforms.
During a joint presentation in early April in Sterling, Virginia, the DARPA/HACMS collaborative displayed such cyber secure platforms as an unmanned helicopter, a small unmanned aerial vehicle, and an enhanced soldier-vision helmet. One of the first applications under the newly-awarded DARPA contract will apply HACMS technologies to support the U.S. Navy.
