NSF targets tech security

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0910/web-nsf-09-10-01.asp

By Diane Frank 
Sept. 10, 2001

The National Science Foundation is creating a new research program to
raise the basic level of security in commercial technology used by
government and the public.

The Trusted Computing program will aim to foster research on making
information systems able to withstand internal and external security
breaches.

"As computer systems and computer networks are increasingly used to
create, store, process and transmit information that is critical to
citizens, industry, government and academia, the design and
development of security, safe software and systems has become a
fundamental problem," the Sept. 6 announcement states.

The basic problem is that as new and upgraded software is delivered
more and more quickly to the commercial market, developers are not
taking the time to put the products through the kind of testing and
verification needed to ensure a secure product. The Trusted Computing
program seeks to establish research that will change the way software
developers think about security.

"It is a necessity to ensure that future information systems not only
behave as expected, but, more importantly, continue to produce
expected behavior and are not susceptible to subversion," the
announcement states.

Research proposals are due by Dec. 5, and in years to come will be due
the first Wednesday in December. Between $4 million and $6 million
will be available for 20 to 25 grants each year. The grants will last
for two to five years, and will be for $80,000 to $500,000 per award
depending on the number of groups involved in the proposal.



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