Important Innovations

DARPA Protecting World Wide Web Goal:  Take Them Out Before They Take Out Your Website DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, has just launched a program that targets botnet hacking.  The goal is to develop tools to dismantle botnets before they destroy websites, companies and even nations. Contract Awarded DARPA just awarded a $1.2 million contract to the cybersecurity frim Packet Forensics.  Their mission is to identify and locate hidden online armies.  DARPA wants an arsenal of tools that troll the internet, identify and counter cyber adversary system programs before they attack. System Automatic & Undetectable The system DARPA wants to deploy would be automatic.  It would automatically spot botnet-infected systems and disable the malware without their knowing. To build botnets, hackers infect devices connected to the internet with malware that lets them do harm from a remote server.  The virus is dormant most of the time so you don

DARPA's SafeDocuments Program for Internet DARPA's newest project is targeted at ensuring the integrity of documents that move over the web.  The goal is to improve the ability of software to spot when documents, whether text, video or image, have been maliciously tampered with.  DARPA is the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency.  It's the moving force behind the creation of the internet, cloud computing, drones and much more. Safer Internet Requires Safer Electronic Documents DARPA's looking for better ways to detect and reject invalid and hacked data without impacting the functioning of the data formats themselves.  As DARPA officials put it, to create a safer internet requires safer electronic documents.  According to DARPA SafeDocs Manager Sergey Bratus:  "We're looking for ways to reduce the complexity of electronic document exchange and minimize the means of exploitation from cybercriminals to nation states." Increasing Problem