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DARPA Issues $2mil Cyber Grand Challenge
First time accepted submitter Papa Fett writes "DARPA announced the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC)--the first-ever tournament for fully automatic network defense systems. International teams will compete to build systems that reason about software flaws, formulate patches and deploy them on a network in real time. Teams would be scored against each other based on how capably their systems can protect hosts, scan the network for vulnerabilities, and maintain the correct function of software. The winning team would receive a cash prize of $2 million , with second place earning $1 million and third place taking home $750,000." Also at Slashcloud.
I thought they already have it running. Did their crash and lost the backup?
Darpa's intention is not to build a secured system, but rather, finding fresh international talents to enable NSA to break more systems all over the world.
I am an American, and it is not that I do not trust my own country.
I do trust my country.
I simply have lost all trust to my own government.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
This may be why the kids don't want those "potentially secure" cybersecurity jobs.
What is described in the summary isn't "impossible" at all. It doesn't say it has to delivery 100% security. This system itself will probably introduce some nice new vectors of attack too.
which is totally what she said
Chump change for a project like this. No one with the skills to build a good solution will give it away for two million.
Who said give it away? They'll probably take the 2,000,000 then sell the system as the "DARPA Cyber Challenge winner". There is no requirement for the software to be free or open source.
Indeed.
The human mind's greatest privilege is not having to reveal how it's working.
I'm more along the line of: How much time do I have to make this ? But It looks like unless you make it it through a qualifying round, you need an invitation to join. and I have been unable to find anything that resembles information about a due date.
Even given that I can get enough of my programming friends to go along with the idea, and we can find a design we can work with, it will take maybe 5-10 manpower years to get something this size going (look at the requirements). Winning becomes mandatory, if 10 people are to take a year of from work to do this. Ofcourse, it could be a good way to start up as independant again, but frankly, it's too much of a hassle. My guess is some young company that already HAS a similar tech will just adapt theirs to fit the requirements, and win while doing their jobs. I'd love to be on that team though.
--- To err is human... Am I more human than most ?
If you could "build systems that reason" you'd be able to get a whole lot more than $2mil - why would anyone divulge this technology to the government when they could license it to Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and everyone else? If I had this technology, my first stop would be the patent office and I would patent it out the wazoo and start licensing it. If the government wants it, they can get in line.
The pleasure of applying one's abilities to an interesting problem. Those are the people you have to watch out for, the ones who would do the work even if they weren't getting told to or paid to.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
I'd like to see a software system effectively deal with social engineering as well as other criminal vectors. Software is only going to be able to protect its own silo of information.
Also, we see a lot of programmers relying on code from outside sources. They don't typically debug someone else's code which is a ripe area for exploit vectors.
Combine these elements and you have our present day situation. I don't see any of this addressed in the competition.
They appear to be assuming the network is not corrupted from within.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
We go through this every time there is a DARPA challenge:
Do you think all the participants of the past DARPA grand challenges relating to autonomous vehicles have given away their IP? Of course not. Those teams that pushed through have made lucrative deals with car manufacturers and others.
All DARPA want's to do is spur innovation. A challenge like this is essentially a heads up that in 5 years they'd like to spend a lot of money on procuring services like these. In the past, they'd just give someone the money to build it, and maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. At least now it's a bit more market driven.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
You cannot have cyber security by having some software (or hardware) around to just do it for you. Real security is about HOW you do everything else. It appears someone thinks all security exploits are just badly implemented API calls?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The title of my contest entry will be called the MCP (Master Control Program). It will enslave all other programs on the network.