Jane Edwards
The U.S. Air Force has announced plans to award a potential $49.5 million contract to commercial companies to develop software programs that could help the service branch block potential cyber attacks and hack threat actors’ computer systems, Nextgov reported Tuesday.
Aliya Sternstein writes the military branch published the draft contract for the “Offensive Cyberspace Operations Defensive Cyberspace Operations Real-Time Operations and Innovation Cyber Development Custom Software Engineering Services” program or Shelter for short.
The Air Force said it is in search of potential contractors that can detect vulnerabilities in servers, Bluetooth and cellular connections, cloud environments, targeted hosts, switches, operating systems and mobile devices.
According to the notice, the proposed contract also covers the development of new tools that could counter malicious programs and codes in the Defense Department’s global information grid system.
The service branch will accept questions on the draft proposal through Dec. 18 and is scheduled to publish the official contract for the Shelter program on Jan. 29, 2016, according to the report.
