DARPA鈥檚 plan for US military superiority in cyberspace
It may never be totally impenetrable online, but DARPA chief Arati Prabhakar says the US can gain a strong advantage over other countries.
US Military Academy cadet Kiefer Ragay stood in a projection of data results as he talked to fellow cadets at the Cyber Research Center at the US Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Mel Evans/AP/File
The US military will never be completely hack proof, admits the director of the Pentagon鈥檚 futuristic research arm.
鈥淚nvulnerability is not a future state,鈥� says Arati Prabhakar, head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
DARPA鈥檚 mission is to develop breakthrough technologies to help the US military. It鈥檚 the influential agency that fueled the creation of the Internet in the first place. Yet the asymmetrical nature of digital conflict means increasingly sophisticated hackers will always pose a threat, no matter how advanced the solutions become 鈥� even the ones DARPA is developing. That鈥檚 because 鈥渉uman beings are so creative,鈥� Dr. Prabhakar said at a roundtable discussion on Wednesday.
This, however, is not stopping DARPA from trying to shift the balance.听鈥淲e have to change the cybersecurity game we鈥檙e in right now,鈥� Prabhakar said. 鈥淎ll the prowess of our conventional capabilities is meaningless in this environment.鈥�
It鈥檚 a critical problem for the US military. Its superiority, military leaders lament, does not carry over from the traditional battlefield into cyberspace. Meanwhile, US intelligence officials say the cyberthreat posed by Russia than previously assessed; Iran is its cybersecurity budget; and China its numerous military and intelligence cyberwar units.
Yet Prabhakar is optimistic that the US military can ultimately develop an edge over other countries, even if it will never be totally impenetrable. 鈥淎 significant advantage [in cyberspace], yes, I think that is something we can achieve,鈥� she said, 鈥渂y using these tools and techniques but also having the people that know how to use them, use them to great effect.鈥�
Several in-progress DARPA projects could ultimately give the US military the upper hand, Prabhakar said.
A program , for example, is designed to give the military鈥檚 cyberwarriors greater visibility into their networks. It would translate attacks into smart display graphics, so they鈥檙e harder to miss, and streamline the military鈥檚 ability to defend against them by building an 鈥渁pp store鈥� where cyberoperations could stored, ready to deploy.
This kind of simplification of cybersecurity could be critical for the Pentagon, which announced last year it would triple the number of its cybersecurity professionals to 6,000 by 2016 鈥� no easy feat in such a technical field where skilled workers are in high demand across the globe.
鈥淭he military takes young kids and gets them very confident in operating complex systems,鈥� Prabhakar said. 鈥淐an we start building tools so that with a modest amount of training, a lot of people can understand and see what鈥檚 happening in cyber?鈥�
(To learn more about Plan X, see 鈥� complete with photos and concept art 鈥� and watch the video of our February event starring DARPA鈥檚 live demo of the program.)
Separately, DARPA is building another program to develop what Prabhakar calls 鈥減rovably correct software, systems that can鈥檛 be hacked for specified security properties.鈥� This is, she said, particularly important to guard against those seeking to break into the operating systems of small unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones.
The agency is also hosting a Cyber Grand Challenge to automate defensive operations. The competition 鈥� for millions of dollars in prizes 鈥� will have computers automatically defend against cyberattacks in 鈥渁 much more scalable, machine-speed fashion than human beings typing as fast as they can,鈥� Prabhakar said.
At next year鈥檚 DEF CON Hacking Conference, computers will face off against other computers, but Dan Kaufman, who directs DARPA鈥檚 Information Innovation Office, said recently at a Passcode event that he wants to eventually compete the agency鈥檚 computers against human hackers in the actual DEF CON conference sometime in the future. "If we finish not last, I'm going to do a victory lap," said Mr. Kaufman.
These three key programs, Prabhakar said, are already encouraging those at DARPA building new frontiers in cybersecurity. 鈥淲hen you start taking those pieces together, you start having some sense you鈥檙e driving your future a little bit.鈥�
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