DHS works on secure messaging, even as cybersecurity budget is cut

One of DHS Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) cybersecurity arm’s more important research projects has to do with secure messaging. Because of security concerns, DHS currently does not allow its employees to use laptops or other hand-held devices to have wireless access to the department’s network. The need to address this problem has become more acute as the department work force becomes more mobile, and as more employees rely on wireless communication. ARPA is now working with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on implementing secure hand-held devices with text, audio, and video — and also with spam prevention. ARPA is concerned about more than viruses or worms. It emphasizes defending the network against terrorism, organized crime, and economic espionage.

Secure messaging is not the only thing ARPA is working on. Other projects include a Web-based tool for network administrators to perform self-assessments of their systems’ cyber security; a tool which automatically tracks down and eliminates bots and bot networks; a secure repository of information that would give researchers and affected companies attack traffic data including packet traces, attack topology, intrusion detection, and firewall log data within a week of a large scale attack; an overhaul of the domain name system to integrate security against certain types of attacks into the infrastructure of the Internet. Sweden is already implementing these specifications; and more secure protocols for the Internet’s routing infrastructure.

If the agency’s work is important, you would not know it from the budget given to it by Congress — a mere $16.7 million budget for 2006, down from $18 million in 2005. The cuts in funding is in fact good for academia and industry, as ARPA has been forced to rely on more than its internal expertise and reach out more to academia and industry to get research done and have products commercialized and implemented as quickly as possible. In addition, agency-wide cuts have forced a transition from pure research to more applied research, leaving more room for academia and industry.

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