"Montana State Receives $4.47 Million Award for Improving Cybersecurity"

Montana State University (MSU) is leading a new effort to reduce software vulnerabilities across various systems, building on nearly five years of helping the Departments of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in improving methods for resisting cyberattacks. The project, which is funded by a three-year, $4.47 million DHS contract, is based on advanced computing and data science techniques. The goal is to create innovative tools for identifying computer code that cybercriminals or foreign enemies could exploit. A team of eight faculty members from MSU, Idaho State University (ISU), Washington State University (WSU), and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will develop computer models capable of analyzing software during the development process, a process known as quality assurance, and identify code that could be hacked once the software is used. The project builds on work begun in 2018, when project leader and principal investigator Clem Izurieta applied his cybersecurity expertise to a project with MSU's Techlink Center to improve software used by DOD to manage its facilities. The MSU team created an innovative framework for identifying software vulnerabilities using multiple existing tools. This success enabled Izurieta's team to secure $3.1 million in DHS funding in 2020 for a collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) under an interagency agreement aimed at developing new methods of evaluating software vulnerabilities. The scope is expanded by the new project to include cloud-based software and Industrial Control Systems (ICS). The new project will also make use of cutting-edge computing advances such as Machine Learning (ML), which uses algorithms and statistical models to dynamically adapt to data patterns. According to ML expert Brad Whitaker, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, this approach will allow cybersecurity tools to comb through computer code and spot potential problems. This article continues to discuss the new effort to reduce software vulnerabilities across a wide range of systems.

MSU reports "Montana State Receives $4.47 Million Award for Improving Cybersecurity"