Cybersecurity R&D Solicitation ($95M) Announced

Before I joined the U.S. Civil Service, I worked as a contractor for the Cyber Security Division (CSD) of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. They are an excellent, mission driven organization which just released a R&D solicitation that folks who work in the identity, privacy and security space may be interested in.

DHS S&T CSD is charged with “… enhancing the security and resilience of the Nation’s critical information infrastructure and the Internet by (1) driving security improvements to address critical weaknesses, (2) discovering new solutions for emerging cybersecurity threats, and (3) delivering new, tested technologies to defend against cybersecurity threats.”

The Cyber Security Division (CSD) of the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security is pleased to announce the release of an R&D solicitation focused on providing technologies, tools, techniques, and next generation cybersecurity capabilities, so DHS, the U.S, and our global partners can defend, mitigate and secure current and future systems, networks and critical infrastructures against cyber-attacks. The goals of the S&T Cyber Security Division (CSD) are:

• To perform research and development (R&D) aimed at improving the security of existing deployed technologies, and to ensure the security of new emerging systems;
• To develop new and enhanced technologies for the detection of, prevention of, and response to cyber-attacks on the nation’s critical information infrastructure; and
• To assist the transfer of these technologies into the national infrastructure as a matter of urgency.

Below are the links for the overarching BAA and the four topics released over the past several days. We hope you will consider attending the industry days mentioned in the announcements and consider responding to this R&D solicitation.

Douglas Maughan, Division Director, Cyber Security R&D, DHS S&T

Government grant and pilot funding opportunities are often written in a cryptic language all its own, so start with reading the latest version of the Cyber Security Division 5-Year Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). It is an interesting read, especially the international opportunities for applying for funding as well as for other countries to jointly fund the R&D.

It also looks like they have chosen some specific topics to focus on for this year (see below). Highly recommend attending the associated industry days for each topic you may be interested in:

• Data Privacy Technologies Research and Development (PDF) - Industry Day Info
• Mobile Technology Security (DOC) - Industry Day Info
• Cyber Physical Systems Security (DOC) - Industry Day Info
• Distributed Denial of Service Defense (DOC) - Industry Day Info

Don’t be confused by the use of the term R&D, since CSD is interested in the “… full lifecycle of technology—research, development, test, evaluation, and transition to practice—to produce unclassified solutions that can be implemented in both the public and private sectors”.

RELATED INFO

• Federal News Radio: DHS S&T antes up $95M for cyber research, development (Interview with Dr.Douglas Maughan)