UCB, USC To Build (And Hack) A Model Internet

darksoulz writes "Associated Press stories from TheKansasCityChannel.com and TheChamplainChannel.com have an interesting report today. It appears that the U.S. Government has given a $5.5 million grant to the University of California, Berkley and the University of Southern California so that they can build a model of the internet, so they can hack it. They are trying to find better defenses against hacking, without breaking the real Internet. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by February."

Comments

Good

[delirium28]

This is an intersting approach, but if they keep this a "closed system" (i.e. a hidden internet), then how much real "hacking" can they expect? Are they going to use honeypot data? Will they expose this system externally for real "hackers" to play with? Just my $0.02 worth.

Questions remain

[bwaynef]

I think this is a straight-forward approach but there are problems that need to be addressed.

• How will they implement the latencies and delays that commonly befall the internet.
• Where will the millions of unique traffic-data originate.
• How will they mimic the different styles of hacking.

It would be interesting to see how they implement this network.

• Are they going to be two seperate networks.
• Will they be one network connected over an existing internet link?
• If they connect over an existing internet link how will they deal with that connection as its no longer a simulation

I don't think that we have a requirement to see any of the information that I've questioned above but this information could lead /. to be more informed on this situation.

Similar Project at Iowa State University

[logrey]

Iowa State has a similar project funded with a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Iowa State Computer Security Lab

Re:Tin foil hat or not?

[ShinmaWa]

I'm absolutely positive that part of the agreement was that Berkeley could publish their findings once the project was over. If absolute secrecy was important, then it wouldn't be done at Berkeley (and it wouldn't be reported on Slashdot). Its that simple.

Besides, in order to "shore up the US", there would need to be a lot of cooperation among the multitudes of private enterprises that actually run and maintain the network. Most of the big players in this arena are large, multinational companies that would be inclined to shore up ALL their networks, not just the ones in the US.