DARPA Selects Two More Companies for Research into Malicious Cyber Identification

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected Systems Technology & Research, Woburn, Massachusetts, for a research project under the Harnessing Autonomy for Countering Cyberadversary Systems (HACCS) program. The HACCS program aims to develop technologies for accurately identifying malicious cyber-adversary infiltrated networks, generating reliable software exploits for large numbers of known (n-day) vulnerabilities, and creating effective autonomous software agents that can be inserted in the compromised networks via the n-day exploits to safely and reliably neutralize cyber-adversary software agents. The company will provide its efforts under a $8,701,466 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, and the work will be performed in Woburn; Portland, Oregon; and Columbus, Ohio, with an expected completion date of April 2022. Fiscal year 2017 research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding in the amount of $125,000; and FY 2018 RDT&E funding in the amount of $500,000, are being obligated at time of award.

DARPA also awarded a $7,474,245 cost-reimbursement type contract to Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, for the HACCS program. Work will be performed in Tempe, Arizona; Santa Barbara, California; Melbourne, Florida; and Scottsdale, Arizona, with an expected completion date of April 2022. Fiscal year 2017 RDT&E funding in the amount of $93,000; and fiscal year 2018 RDT&E funding in the amount of $400,000 are being obligated at the time of award. ​ On April 10, the agency also selected Kudu Dynamics, Chantilly, Virginia, to support the HACCS program, with a $7,913,091 contract award.