On September 1st the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) awarded a $1.3 million mobile security research contract to IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. IBM will be tasked to perform research on next-generation mobile security management tools.
“It’s essential for S&T to provide mobile device security technology to our government partners using devices daily for mission use. This research project will provide innovative solutions to protect the government’s mobile devices from adversaries,” said Dr. Reginald Brothers, DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology.
IBM will construct a mobile management tool that will be able to discern irregular long-term behaviors across multiple devices. This tool will ultimately support the IBM System G Insider Threat Solution system which is used to detect insider threats such as espionage, sabotage or fraud.
“Cybersecurity needs to keep pace with the mobile industry in order to protect personal and mission information. As the number of smart devices grows, the threat to mobility will increase. The MDS R&D project will look at protecting the mobile device from multiple angles, one which is next-generation security management tools. The current priority is protecting the government’s devices from current and emerging threats, but the end goal is to apply our technology solutions to the broader market,” said Vincent Sritapan, Cyber Security Division MDS Program Manager.
