US Intelligence Unit Seeks Way to Detect Radio Signals That Indicate Data Breaches

WASHINGTON, October 27 (Sputnik) - The US government awarded contracts to five firms in a multi-year research effort to develop methods to scan the radio frequency spectrum that will automatically detect signals associated with attempted hacks, the Intelligence Advanced Research Activity (IARPA) said.

“The Securing Compartmented Information with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS) program will elevate the Intelligence Community’s (IC) and the Department of Defense’s (DoD) abilities to safeguard information and data that is generated, stored, used, transmitted, and received in secure facilities and beyond. Program success will likely require breakthroughs in machine learning (ML) and traditional digital signal processing techniques,” IARPA said in a press release on Tuesday.

The contracts were awarded to A 10 Systems; BAE Systems; Expedition Technology; JASR Systems; and Northrop Grumman, the release said.

“Our research goal is extremely challenging because we need to scan an enormous frequency range and analyze terabytes of data every second - we are looking for the proverbial needles in the RF haystack,” SCISRS Program Manager Paul Kolb said in the release. “If we want to deploy SCISRS everywhere, we must find a way to run hyper-efficient algorithms on modestly-priced hardware.”

IARPA, a unit in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, invests in high-risk, high-payoff research programs for the US intelligence community, according to the release.