There’s data all around us, invisibly flying at light speed from more locations to more destinations than anyone can count. These data, in the form of radio frequency (RF) signals, are sent by billions of mobile phones, radios, beepers and other devices that make-up modern society’s communications footprint.
As important as data is for the everyday life, for the Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD), data is central to their very existence and critical to national security. And it’s safe to say that, aside from its people, there is nothing more critical for the IC and DoD than protecting the data they generate and transmit. Indeed, if they can’t protect their data, then they, quite literally, can’t protect the country.
Significant investments in infrastructure by the U.S. Government and the private sector have provided a high-level of confidence in the security of data in facilities under their control. However, in complex environments where there is potentially much less control, such as on U.S. naval vessels, in temporary ad-hoc office-space for government officials, and at outdoor locations, data security becomes more challenging.
Indeed, it’s in these and similarly complex RF locations where adversaries can more easily steal sensitive information. So, in an effort to mitigate potential breaches of sensitive data, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has launched its multi-year Securing Compartmented Data with Smart Radio Systems (SCISRS) program.
The goal of the SCISRS program is to develop smart radio techniques to automatically detect and characterize suspicious signals and other RF variations in complex RF environments. The specific types of variations include RF signals that are hard to intercept, altered or mimicked signals, and abnormal or unintended signals.
Developing the technology for the SCISRS program will be challenging, but it is critical to the IC and military’s ability to protect sensitive information, according to SCISRS program manager, Dr. Paul Kolb.
“Among the challenges in developing SCISRS technology is that the relevant signals of interest the program aims to identify may range over several orders of magnitude and the data collection rates may approach terabytes per second,” Dr. Kolb said. “This is about one million times higher than the data rate for high-definition video, and so we need to develop super-efficient algorithms running on modestly priced hardware to get a handle on the problem. Scalability is key."
The technical challenge SCISRS presents is why IARPA has awarded contracts to companies (performers) who have deep expertise and broad experience working on difficult RF communications problems. This includes: AiRANACULUS, BAE Systems, Expedition Technology, Inc., JASR Systems, and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation.
In addition, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is serving as one SCISRS test and evaluation team and has established an RF testbed to support the program. It will rigorously work to assess performers’ solutions on their abilities to detect and characterize unexpected RF signals.
“While success isn’t guaranteed with SCISRS, or any IARPA program for that matter, I’m confident we will make significant progress in finding a solution to this serious and difficult problem,” Dr. Kolb said.
