DARPA begins development of computer security systems that can independently detect and fix vulnerabilities

DARPA agency announced the launch of a new large-scale program in the format of "Grand Challenge". The goal of the Cyber ​​Grand Challenge is to create computer security systems that can automatically analyze and fix vulnerabilities. Today, highly qualified experts are engaged in this work, and closing the “holes” takes days and months. DARPA wants to reduce this period to hours and minutes.

The new generation security systems should analyze software and computer networks, create patches, test and apply them without human intervention. It sounds like a fantasy, but it is worth recalling past competitions in the same format - in 2004, 2005 and 2007, the goal of the DARPA Grand Challenge was to create a fully autonomous car. The Stanford University team, led by Sebastian Trun, who continued to work on creating an autonomous car at Google, participated in them.

The main prize of the competition is $ 2,000,000 for the first place, 1,000,000 for the second and 750,000 for the third. DARPA is confident that even if the participants fail to create a fully autonomous system by the end of the competition in 2016, it is very important to start such attempts as early as possible, because now cyber weapons in the form of viruses and coordinated hacker attacks that infect the enemy’s computer systems have become a reality. To defend against it, it is necessary to create automatic protective systems that can respond to threats much faster than humans.

You can familiarize yourself with the detailed conditions of the contest on its official website. The competition is open, participation in it is free. The only restriction is that only US citizens or organizations registered and operating in the United States are eligible to participate.