DASA awards further innovation funding to predict and counter cyber attacks

This work will develop, adapt and merge the novel approaches explored in Phase 1 of the competition to proactively defend deployed UK military systems and networks from the rapidly growing threat of offensive cyber action from aggressive adversaries.

Project manager Rebecca Duncan said: Cyber security has been in an arms race for decades, with hackers continuously exploiting new vulnerabilities while developers race to patch them. This DASA competition looks to position the UK ahead of these threats and better prepare us against – and even predict – future cyber attacks. As our understanding of adversaries and attack patterns improves, increased computing power and data growth continues to drive the Artificial Intelligence revolution with multiple new possibilities emerging to keep the UK safe and prosperous.

DASA delivery manager Robert Hammond-Smith added: This DASA competition is bringing together the best minds in industry and academia with the brightest Government scientists and talent from the Armed Forces to innovate for a safer future for everyone in the UK.

Phase 2 seeks to further develop and enhance the predictive approaches while adapting them to the military environment. The work will allow the Ministry of Defence to better anticipate and mitigate the impact of cyber attacks.

The organisations being funded are Bristol-based RiskAware Ltd (who are awarded around £450,000 in collaboration with the University of Southampton), Vauxhall-based decisionLab (who are awarded nearly £240,000 in collaboration with DIEM Analytics and Actica) and Gloucestershire-based Montvieux Limited, who are awarded nearly £250,000

Seven proposals received nearly £1 million in funding during Phase 1, thereby bringing the total funding to about £2 million.

DASA finds and funds exploitable technology and innovative solutions to give UK defence and security a strategic advantage over the nation's adversaries while at the same time boosting UK prosperity.