For Immediate Release
DHS Science & Technology Press Office
Contact: John Verrico, (202) 254-2385
Washington, D.C. – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) today announced a $1.7 million cybersecurity Mobile Technology Security (MTS) research and development (R&D) award that will help secure mobile devices for the federal government. The Broad Agency Announcement HSHQDC-14-R-B0015 by the Cyber Security Division awarded the contract to Kryptowire, LLC from Fairfax, Virginia to work on mobile security research in device instrumentation.
“As the needs of our nation and the Department continue to grow, enabling a mobile workforce is essential to mission success,” said DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology Dr. Reginald Brothers. “It is critical that we deliver innovative secure technologies that enable a robust and secure mobile experience to support the Department’s mission. S&T’s MDS project will develop innovative technology solutions to secure public and private mobile device end-users.”
The MTS award is a part of the Mobile Device Security (MDS) R&D project which aims to accelerate the adoption of secure mobility by government and private sector organizations. The MDS project is developing R&D technologies in mobile device instrumentation, transactional security methods, mobile security management tools and mobile device layer protection.
The mobile device instrumentation project will look to develop a mobile computing technology platform that will provide continuous authentication based on environment metrics, device, and user behaviors to detect imposters. While an end-user is using their mobile device, Kryptowire will monitor the mobile device’s environmental characteristics such as networks, connections and sensors in order to create a profile, which will become the norm. The technology will then continuously compare the normal device profile to real-time measured usage patterns to continuously update system confidence as to the authenticity of the user. The level of required authentication within the technology will be applied based on the user level. As more sensitive tasked are performed, the user will have a higher authentication level to keep information safe. This technology will help organizations to set the authentication level confidence per user to quickly determine that a user is not an imposter.
“Mobile technology is rapidly growing and is shaping how we communicate, collaborate, and conduct business,” said Cyber Security Division MDS Program Manager Vincent Sritapan. “The MDS R&D program will look to protect our mobile future with affordable secure technologies that will use sensors and instrumentation methods to combat against current and emerging threats.”
The successful launch of this R&D project will enable S&T to provide cutting-edge, secure technologies to the Department, government, and enterprising organizations to help create a secure and seamless mobile experience.
For more information, visit scitech.dhs.gov/cyber-research or email SandT-Cyber-Liaison@HQ.DHS.GOV.
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