Scott Nicholas
The Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute has received a $640,000 contract from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to conduct research work on prepositioned cyber threats in mobile devices.
CIRI, a DHS S&T Center of Excellence, will establish a framework for mobile device operating systems that can help automatically determine threats that sprout from personal identifiable information, Trojan viruses, validation checks and ineffective security checks, DHS said Thursday.
The research effort will also assess mobile devices and supply-chain vectors to discover potential prepositioned cyber threats such as malware.
DHS noted that CIRI’s research project will help S&T create secure mobile technologies for government agencies and enterprise organizations.
Matthew Coats, deputy director of the DHS S&T Office of University Programs, said that the research effort will help develop risk management strategies for cyber threats related to infrastructure systems.
The Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency’s Cyber Security Division and the OUP will co-manage the research project.
Fairfax, Virginia-based mobile application developer Kryptowire will also support the CIRI research team led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
