
Show Notes
U.S. national security depends on an aging IT infrastructure that supports a vast network of systems spanning the globe. Over the past three decades, traditional security practices—like virus scanning, patching software, and intrusion detection systems—have led to a landscape of vulnerable systems. The Department of Defense is no exception, where legacy IT systems and even the most advanced fighter jets and weapons platforms are susceptible to exploitable weaknesses.
But this doesn’t have to continue being our reality.
In this episode of Voices from DARPA, we explore the agency’s groundbreaking work on revolutionizing software development. At the forefront of this transformation is the use of formal methods—a powerful, mathematical approach that ensures robust security and guarantees the absence of vulnerabilities in software systems. Join experts from DARPA and its strategic partners as they explore how these cutting-edge tools are reshaping the security landscape and paving the way for a future where vulnerabilities are not just minimized but provably absent—across the U.S. military and beyond.
Show Notes
· Current DARPA programs leveraging formal methods: o AI Quantified (AIQ) o Assured Autonomy o Assured Micropatching (AMP) o Automated Rapid Certification of Software (ARCOS) o Intrinsic Cognitive Security (ICS) o Pipelined Reasoning of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS) o Provably Weird Network Deployment and Detection (PWND2) o Safe Documents (SafeDocs) o Verified Security and Performance Enhancement of Large Legacy Software (V-SPELLS)
· High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) overview, research paper, and Little Bird demo video
· National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Workshop on Secure Building Blocks for Trustworthy Systems (segment at 7:23:49)
· Voices from DARPA Episode 51: The Cybersecurity Sleuth, featuring former DARPA program manager, Dr. Sergey Bratus
· DARPA Forward: Engineering Secure Information Systems video presentation
More from Voices from DARPA
logistics challenge sparked a movement to break a nearly century-old barrier holding back heavy vertical-lift aircraft.
As the landscape of naval warfare changes, traditional defense methods like large convoys and standard object recognition are becoming impractical. New, scalable solutions are needed to help U.S. Navy Sailors identify maritime threats, track potential targets, and safeguard the massive commercial and military logistics vessels that form the backbone of global trade and defense.
What new capabilities can we unlock by understanding how to rearrange the building blocks of matter? At some time in our lives, most of us have learned that matter is made of molecules, molecules are made of atoms, and atoms are made of protons, electrons, and neutrons. But what’s less commonly learned is what’s going on inside those atoms and molecules, such as when a bond breaks or internal components are rearranged through a chemical reaction.
What if we could turn economic complexity into strategic understanding? In this episode, we sit down with David Rushing Dewhurst, Ph.D., a program manager in DARPA\'s Information Processing Techniques Office, IPTO. Dewhurst works at the complex intersection of economics, data science, and national security to develop tools that help America navigate a world where economic competition has become a primary battlefield.
What does it take to solve the world's most urgent national security and economic challenges? At DARPA, it starts with questioning past assumptions. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of a major organizational pivot to hear directly from the office leaders driving the change.