A team comprising of a Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) subsidiary and GrammaTech has been awarded a $4.8 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop technologies for protecting information technology devices from malware and other backdoor attacks.
Raytheon BBN Technologies and GrammaTech will work to develop techniques and tools designed to help agencies monitor network-enabled devices under DARPA’s Vetting Commodity IT Software and Firmware initiative, the companies said Monday.
“The VET program seeks to enable DoD analysts to vigorously vet software and firmware devices before they are connected to our critical networks, ” said Jack Marin, vice president of cybersecurity at Raytheon BBN Technologies.
“Any backdoors, malicious code or other vulnerabilities hidden in those components could enable an adversary to do serious damage, including the exfiltration of sensitive data and the sabotage of critical operations.”
Raytheon BBN Technologies will work on techniques for analysts to evaluate firmware and software for malicious codes and GrammaTech will design tools for examining software and firmware.
