Government Invests in Security

Network Associates Inc. announced on Tuesday that it is receiving $11 million in contract funds to develop new technologies for information system security.

The grant will be used by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Network Associates' NAI Labs to develop IA (information assurance) and intrusion survivability technologies during the next two years for military, government, and commercial use to deal with security breaches and outbreaks, according to a statement released by the company.

"With the number of security breaches on the rise, companies need to trust that their systems are working at the utmost capacity, and the technologies and tools that we're developing will do just that," said Terry Benzel, vice president of Advanced Security Research and director of NAI Labs, in Tuesday's statement.

The grant was awarded to the security company by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Defined in Tuesday's NAI statement, IA is trust that security technology will work as it should, while knowing about, and possibly allowing for, likely threats. Intrusion survivability is described as the capability of a system to continue providing service, although not necessarily at full capacity, after an intrusion.

Some of the security initiatives to be addressed in the DARPA proposal include Active Network Fault Response, Self-Protecting Mobile agents, Intrusion Tolerant Distributed Object Systems, and Security Policy Automation, Modeling, and Bridging.