R&DS&T awards $8.6 million for enhancing security of mobile apps for the government

Published 11 September 2017

DHS S&T has awarded funding to five R&D projects that will enhance the secure use of mobile applications for the federal government. These Mobile Application Security (MAS) R&D projects focus on continuous validation and threat protection for mobile apps and integrating security throughout the mobile app lifecycle.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded funding to five research and development (R&D) projects that will enhance the secure use of mobile applications (apps) for the federal government.

These Mobile Application Security (MAS) R&D projects will be managed by the DHS S&T Mobile Security R&D program, which is part of the Cyber Security Division in the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. S&T says that the recently launched MAS project is focused on continuous validation and threat protection for mobile apps and integrating security throughout the mobile app lifecycle. It also is developing a security framework and integrated models that will enable the development of secure mobile apps for mission use by DHS components, other government agencies and enterprise organizations.

“Adversaries can use a compromised or vulnerable mobile app as an avenue to target and gain a foothold on a user’s device,” said Acting Under Secretary for Science and Technology William N. Bryan. “The Mobile Application Security project will deliver innovative security solutions that will ensure apps used by government personnel and the public are secure.”

The project contracts were awarded under Broad Agency Announcement HSHQDC-16-R-B0006, which was issued in June 2016 by the S&T Cyber Security Division.

“Each group has proposed and will develop innovative secure solutions that will greatly improve the enterprise security of mobile devices and apps connected to backend systems,” said Mobile Security Program Manager Vincent Sritapan. “Through these and future projects, the Mobile Application Security R&D project will ensure mobile apps are secure no matter whether they are developed by the enterprise or acquired from third-party app markets.”

The following organizations and their projects are the funded MAS awards: