The National Security Agency has formed a new group within its cybersecurity directorate to help predict and identify cyber vulnerabilities in commercial cyber platforms and help the technoloy industry improve the security of their products, Defense One reported Friday.
The new futures and standards group at NSA will also provide companies and customers recommendations to facilitate the safe use of products.
“Our role is taking the insights we have…whether it’s 5G, whether it’s quantum system crypto, whether it’s distributed ledger, and trying to work to ensure those products are built more secure. And we give advice to users who need different levels of security,†said Anne Neuberger, director of the cybersecurity directorate.
Neal Ziring, technical director at the directorate, said the futures and standards group will look at security concerns related to Chinese-made 5G equipment and advance collaboration with the tech industry before faulty platforms become widely adopted.
“Futures and Standards is going to look out a little ahead of today’s threats…look what’s coming down the pike, what sort of risks [a new technology or architecture] might engender, what sort of security improvements might be made to it, and then work with entities that might help effect those changes, usually industry, but sometimes standards bodies, to try and make sure that some of those security improvements are in there before that technology becomes widespread,†Ziring said.