Penn State to lead cyber-security Collaborative Research Alliance

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Creating a science to detect and model cyberattacks and the risk and motivations behind them, and creating a response that can counter the attack and neutralize the cyberattackers in real time, is the aim of a cooperative agreement between the Army Research Laboratory and Penn State. The five-year funding for the core and enhanced program is $23.2 million, with an additional $25 million for the optional five-year extension - a potential total of 48.2 million over the 10-year collaboration. "We're going to develop a new science of understanding how to make security-relevant decisions in cyberspace," said Patrick D. McDaniel , professor of computer science and engineering and principal investigator on the project. "Essentially, we're looking to create predictive models that allow us to make real-time decisions that will lead to mission success." Models for Enabling Continuous Reconfigurability of Secure Missions, a five-year cooperative agreement renewable for an additional five years, will form a Collaborative Research Alliance consisting of Penn State, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California Davis, University of California Riverside and the Army Research Laboratory. Consortium and Army researchers will jointly develop the research program, and lead and conduct research under this Collaborative Research Alliance. An industrial partner will also be engaged in the first year.