Brenda Marie Rivers
Cybersecurity tool maker Kryptowire has won a four-year, $7.3M contract to help the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conduct research and development activities on 5G mobile network security.
Kryptowire will perform work under DARPA’s Open, Programmable, Secure 5G initiative which seeks to establish an open-source system to support subsequent next-generation networks such as 6G communications, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.
According to DARPA, the OPS-5G effort is meant to drive research into standards-compliant 5G network stacks to support automated functionalities and internet of things applications.
The agency noted that it plans to use a “plug and play†concept for the 5G network and use portable systems to “decouple the hardware and software ecosystems†while preventing supply-chain attacks.
DARPA received 40 bids for the  cost-plus-fixed-fee contract through a competitive, broad agency announcement-based process and will obligate $884K in fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds at the time of award.
Contract work will take place in Virginia through September 2024.
