For Immediate Release
DHS Science & Technology Press Office
Contact: John Verrico, (202) 254-2385
Washington, DC – The very first technology foraged under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology’s (S&T) Transition to Practice (TTP) program has transitioned to the commercial market almost two years ahead of schedule.
In seeking innovative solutions to the nation’s cybersecurity challenges, TTP Program Manager Mike Pozmantier identified Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Quantum Secured Communication, a next-generation encryption system that leverages the quantum properties of light. Through the TTP program, he introduced it to commercial industry partners in 2013, and it quickly generated interest at Allied Minds, a science and technology development and commercialization company. On Aug. 27, the company announced it had exclusively licensed the technology and has formed Whitewood Encryption Systems, Inc. to take it to market.
“We’re very excited that the first commercialization license for a technology from the TTP program has been finalized,” said Cyber Security Division TTP Program Manager Mike Pozmantier. “ We believe this technology will be beneficial to the nation’s security by creating encryption keys based on truly random numbers at high rates allowing for application of this technology in areas where it previously wasn’t feasible."
In 2012 the TTP program was established in an effort to support the Department’s mission of improving the nation’s cybersecurity capabilities and to accelerate government funded research into widespread deployment. The TTP Program seeks to identify mature technologies that address an existing cybersecurity gap in systems that impact national security and introduce new technology through partnerships and commercialization to help secure the homeland.
Each year the TTP program selects a handful of promising cyber technologies to initiate into the 36 month program. S&T introduces these technologies to end users around the country with the end goal of someone taking ownership of turning the technology into a commercially available product. Each year, S&T works across the energy, financial, IT, investment and government sectors to pilot the technology and take ownership of the product to turn it into a commercially available product.
Currently, the TTP program has 17 technologies ready for transition to the marketplace. The TTP program has selected seven additional technologies to be introduced to commercial customers later this year.
“We’re doing everything possible to get public benefit out of the enormous investment the government makes every year in cybersecurity research,” said Pozmantier. “We’re trying to get technology out of government labs in order to secure critical areas like the power grid, finance sector and companies consumers do business with every day. We believe we’re going to have better cybersecurity through these efforts.”
With the success of the Quantum Secured Communication technology’s transition, S&T hopes commercial technology partners and end users will take notice of other technologies in the TTP program as solutions to complex problems.
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