The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has earmarked $2.1 million to support two mobile security research and development projects led by private sector entities.
DHS said Monday that its Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) partnered with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for the Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI) program aimed at improving mobile network traffic visibility.
The initiative falls under the directorate’s Mobile Security and Emergency Communications R&D Program and seeks to address supply-chain security issues in the information and communications technology sector as well as 5G networks.
The program allocates $1.2 million for El Cerrito, California-based AppCensus to develop an application programming interface for traffic intelligence.
GuidePoint Security, a cybersecurity company based in Herndon, Virginia, received $915,000 to develop an architecture that implements a Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) framework based on a Zscaler-built Security-as-a-Service tool called Internet Access Platform.
Matthew Hartman, deputy executive assistant director of cybersecurity at CISA, said the projects will help establish a TIC3.0-based overlay that will fortify federal mobile security networks.
William N. Bryan, acting undersecretary for S&T, said the two proposals will help improve the analysis of network traffic in enterprise environments. S&T previously selected seven industry-led R&D efforts for the SRMNI program.