From attacker to defender: Shifting the cyber advantage

October 5, 2015 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Critical infrastructure systems from power grids and transportation systems to financial systems all rely on the Internet. This increased connectivity brings many conveniences and advantages; however, it also creates increased threats and risks to security.

Credit: daoleduc

"Cybersecurity is a top priority for DHS. Cyber threats are increasing in their frequency, scale, and sophistication," said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) kicks off National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2015 and asks each American to take seriously their role in making the Internet safer and more secure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded eight contracts totaling $14 million for research on technologies to defend against Distributed Denial of Service Defenses (DDoS) attacks.

Typical DDoS attacks are used to render key resources unavailable, such as disrupting an organization's website and temporarily blocking a consumer's ability to access the site. A more strategic attack may render a key resource inaccessible during a critical period. Financial institutions, energy companies and providers of internet security resources can all experience DDoS attacks. Any organization that relies on network resources is considered a potential target.

"Cybersecurity is a critical technology area that is continuously changing," said DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology Dr. Reginald Brothers. "We need to be able to quickly adapt to challenges like DDoS attacks and work with our partners so that solutions can be rapidly developed to ensure the security of our Nation's networks and resources."

The awardees include University of California, San Diego ($1.3 million); University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute ($1.8 million); Colorado State University ($2.7 million); University of Houston ($2.6 million); University of Delaware ($1.9 million); University of Oregon ($1.3 million); Waverley Labs of Waterford, Virginia ($629,992); and Galois Inc. of Portland, Oregon ($1.7 million).

The research and development, which will work to address the critical issues presented by DDoS attacks, will focus on three main areas. Measurement and analysis to promote best current practices will work to slow the growth rate in denial of service attacks and make current attacks more difficult by promoting the deployment of existing best practices. Tools and techniques will also be developed to allow organizations to (and here is the key) "collaboratively" respond to attacks. Finally, novel DDoS attack mitigation and defense techniques will be developed to address new threats while denial of service attack concepts are being applied to non-traditional targets, such as emergency management systems and cyber physical systems.

"DDoS attacks are a serious threat as attackers are growing increasingly more sophisticated and more effective," said S&T DDoSD Program Manager Dr. Dan Massey. "The goal of the DDoSD program is to shift the advantage from the attacker to the defender. If we can do that, we increase the ability to withstand future large-scale sophisticated attacks."

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