DHS S&T Awards $750K to Virginia Tech Company for Blockchain Identity Management Research and Development September 25, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded a $749,241 Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR) contract to Digital Bazaar, Inc. to develop fit-for-purpose blockhains for identity and access management.
Under the SBIR Phase II contract, the Blacksburg, Virginia-based technology company will develop a flexible software ecosystem that combines fit-for-purpose distributed ledger technology, digital credentials and digital wallets to address a wide variety of identity management and online access use cases for the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE). This research and development (R&D) project is being managed by the Cyber Security Division’s (CSD) Identity Management project. CSD is part of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“Blockchain technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we manage online identity and access the internet,” said CSD Director Douglas Maughan. “This R&D project will help bring this potential closer to reality.”
Under its project titled “Fit-for-Purpose Blockchains/Identity and Access Management,” Digital Bazaar will build on its current platform to develop a standards-based digital credentialing solution coupled with a fit-for-purpose blockchain that will provide the new capabilities. Once completed, the enhanced product will be positioned as a Ledger As A Service (LaaS) platform. The company will deploy the LaaS platform in several HSE pilot projects to demonstrate its capability.
“Current blockchain implementations do not use any type of open standards to describe the data they work with. At the same time, scalable deployment requires such interoperability,” said S&T Identity Management Program Manager Anil John. “This blockchain project will deliver a solution that uses open standards developed via existing worldwide standards development organizations to ensure interoperability across blockchain implementations.”
Initiated in 2004, the DHS S&T SBIR program is a competitive contract awards program that increases the participation of innovative and creative U.S. small businesses in federal R&D initiatives and facilitates private-sector commercialization of SBIR-funded solutions. A SBIR Phase II awardee continues its R&D from a completed Phase I project that successfully affirms the scientific and technical merit and feasibility of a proposed effort. S&T’s CSD leverages the SBIR program to fund small business development of new and enhanced cybersecurity solutions. For more about the S&T SBIR program, visit https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/sbir.
CSD’s mission is to enhance the security and resilience of the nation’s critical information infrastructure and the Internet by developing and delivering new technologies, tools and techniques to defend against cyberattacks. The division conducts and supports technology transitions and leads and coordinates R&D among the R&D community, which includes DHS customers, government agencies, the private sector and international partners. For more information about CSD, visit https://www.dhs.gov/cyber-research.
DHS S&T awards $9.7M for 13 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Projects May 2, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded $9.7 million to 12 small businesses for 13 Phase II contracts through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Each Phase II award contract received approximately $750,000 to develop a prototype based on the feasibility of the technologies demonstrated in the Phase I effort, which were completed in November 2016.
“Small businesses play a key role in developing effective and innovative solutions to pressing homeland security challenges,” said DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology (Acting) Dr. Robert Griffin. “The SBIR program enables us to capture some of the best scientific thinking to find solutions to apply in the current threat landscape.”
The Phase II contracts were awarded to:
• BlockCypher (Redwood City, CA), Blockchain Platform for Multiple Blockchains, Applications, and Analytics
• BlueRISC Inc. (Amherst, MA), Cyber Attack Prediction for Situational Understanding and Preemptive Cyber Defense
• Card Smart Technologies (Basking Ridge, NJ), Composite Identity for High Assurance Remote Identity Proofing
• Digital Bazaar (Blacksburg, VA), Verifiable Claims and Fit-for-Purpose Decentralized Ledgers
• Evernym Inc. (Herriman, UT), Decentralized Key Management using Blockchain
• Evigia Systems, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI), Wide-Area Flood Alert Sensor Network
• Inferlink Corp. (El Segundo, CA), OpenWatch: An Architecture for Scalable Resiliency Assessment
• McQ Inc. (Fredericksburg, VA), MEGASCOP: Multi Interface Secure Audio/Video Rebroadcasting (SAVR) System
• Oceanit Laboratories (Honolulu, HI), FIND (First responder INdoor Determination)
• Physical Optics Corp. (Torrance, CA), Real-time Flood Forecasting and Reporting
• Physical Optics Corp. (Torrance, CA), Real-time Information Contextual Correlation and Analysis Software System
• Progeny Systems Corp. (Manassas, VA), Internet of Things (IoT) Low-Cost Flood Inundation Sensor
• Red Balloon Security (New York, NY), Hybrid Prediction for Embedded Malware
DHS S&T Awards $749K to Evernym for Decentralized Key Management Research and Development July 20, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded Salt Lake City-based startup Evernym a $749,000 Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR) award to develop an easy-to-use, decentralized mechanism for managing public and private keys needed for the secure and scalable deployment of blockchain technologies.
Under the SBIR Phase II contract, Evernym will design and implement a decentralized key management system (DKMS) for blockchain technologies based on National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-130, titled “A Framework for Designing Key Management Systems.” The research project is being managed by the S&T Cyber Security Division’s (CSD) Identity Management project.
“A better, more secure method is needed to safeguard the identity and privacy of web-users,” said Acting DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology William N. Bryan. “Research in blockchain holds significant potential to provide a solution that will make it considerably more difficult to hack an online user’s identity.”
Through a project titled “Applicability of Blockchain Technology to Privacy Respecting Identity Management,” Evernym is developing a DKMS—a cryptographic key management approach used with blockchain and other distributed-ledger technologies—to boost online authentication and verification. Within a DKMS, the initial “root-of-trust” for all participants is a distributed ledger that supports a decentralized identifier—a new form of root identity record.
“Managing public and private cryptographic keys in existing public key infrastructure as well as permissioned and permission-less blockchains continues to be a difficult challenge,” said S&T Identity Management Program Manager Anil John. “Through this project, Evernym will push the limits of the emerging decentralized key management system technology to deliver a high level of comfort to the public and American businesses as they integrate blockchain technologies into their technology portfolio.”
CSD is part of S&T’s Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its mission is to enhance the security and resilience of the nation’s critical information infrastructure and the Internet by developing and delivering new technologies, tools and techniques to defend against cyberattacks. The division conducts and supports technology transitions and leads and coordinates R&D among the R&D community, which includes DHS customers, government agencies, the private sector and international partners. For more information about CSD, visit https://www.dhs.gov/cyber-research.
DHS Announces $3 Million in Small Business Innovation Research Awards June 7, 2016
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) today announced a total of $3.1 million in competitive research awards for 29 small businesses located across 12 states, and Washington, D.C. Each business was awarded approximately $100,000 in preliminary funding through DHS S&T’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Thirty-one contracts were awarded in 10 topic areas:
Security Systems Video and Audio Interoperability
Applicability of Blockchain Technology to Identity Management and Privacy Protection
Autonomous Indoor Navigation and Tracking of First Responders
Internet of Things (IoT) Low-Cost Flood Inundation Sensor
Low-Cost, Real-Time Data Analytics for Underserved EMS Agencies
Real-Time Assessment of Resilience and Preparedness
Using Social Media to Support Timely and Targeted Emergency Response Actions
Remote Identity Proofing Alternatives to Knowledge Based Authentication and Verification
The solicitation, released in December 2015, included the above topics developed by S&T program managers to address the research and development needs of DHS components and the greater homeland security enterprise. Small businesses may be eligible for further development funding from their initial project results, as well as the scientific and technical merit and perceived commercialization potential moving forward into development.