Galois wins DHS contract to defend against DDoS cyber attacks

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has awarded a $1.7m contract to Galois to create a technology to combat Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

The deal is part of DHS S&T Cyber Security Division’s larger Distributed Denial of Service Defenses (DDoSD) programme.

Galois will build a collaboration platform to help DHS identify and block DDoS attacks.

The company’s project, dubbed DDoS Defense for a Community of Peers (3DCoP), uses peer-to-peer information sharing to decrease the time from detection to action of a DDoS attack.

Galois Mobile Security & Systems Software research lead Adam Wick said: "Current DDoS defense systems are proving ineffective because they operate in isolation, which introduces delays in the detection, reporting, and response to a DDoS attack.

"This delay is critical. It provides positive feedback to the attacker, who will continue to send more and more traffic at the target network.

"Our solution advances the state of DDoS defense by providing new tools that allow multiple defenders to coordinate their response, resulting in earlier detection and faster DDoS mitigation."

Galois expects to lower mitigation response time by 50%, which is expected to result in an overall peak reduction of 75% to 90%.

The company will also work on reducing the time between the start of the attack and the detection of the attack by 25%.