DHS Taps 13 Small Firms to Develop Cybersecurity Platforms

Thirteen small businesses have received $1.3 million in total preliminary funds from the Department of Homeland Security to develop cybersecurity tools and related methods across four research topics.

DHS’ science and technology directorate made the awards through the Small Business Innovation Research program, the department said Friday.

Celerity Government Solutions, Digital Bazaar, Narf Industries and Respect Network will design blockchain-based platforms designed to protect privacy and manage identities.

Blockchain technologies work to support identity verification process through validation of entries to an existing data field.

CardSmart Technologies, Pomian & Corella and PreID will explore and demonstrate alternative techniques to knowledge-based verification and authentication, while Datanova Scientific and InterLink will build applications designed to perform real-time resilience assessments.

BlueRISC, GrammaTech, Red Balloon Security and ZeroPoint Dynamics will develop techniques and tools that work to predict malware.

DHS said it will issue additional development funds to companies based on their projects’ commercialization potential and preliminary results.