“Privacy, especially when it comes to data, can be difficult to pin down. Security measures are key, but when done wrong can add to the difficulty, making it hard for authorized users to effectively access the data they need. So the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been funding research efforts to develop technologies that could help bridge troublesome privacy gaps.”

strong encryption is not the real issue that faces law enforcement now. In reality, strong encryption has been available for decades. The real issue that government agencies are facing today is actually easy, default, and ubiquitous crypto. Ease of use and security are both in the interest of the public, and in line with the White House cybersecurity priorities.

We know application security is one of the most important aspects of data security, but if software teams are moving more quickly than ever to push apps out, security and quality assurance needs to be along for the process. The flip side is minimum apps and features could mean less attack surface. To get some answers on the state of mobile app security and securing the MVP, we reached out to Isaac Potoczny-Jones research lead, computer security with a computer security research and development firm Galois.

With DDoS tools and hacking-as-a-service now available for purchase at virtually any Dark Web marketplace and effectively being advertised through public attacks, companies are understandably concerned. Even when caught midstream, it’s difficult to respond before servers start failing and other, more sophisticated attacks take aim at critical corporate data. As a result, dealing with DDoS has become a top priority for organizations like the DHS, which just awarded a $1.7 million contract to tech company Galois in hopes of strengthening DDoS defense.

Galois of Portland announced on Monday this week that the federal government has contracted the company to develop technology capable of countering DDoS attempts — elementary but often successful cyberattacks in which hackers cause a computer system to collapse by subjecting it to a sudden surge in traffic. Individuals ranging from politically-motivated hacktivists to state-sponsored cyberwarriors have relied on DDoS attacks to take entire systems offline. And yet while the lasting effects may be minimal, downtime suffered by the likes of a major financial institution — or, as Galois’ contract suggests, a government agency — may cause immeasurable damages.

Adam Wick leads the systems software group at R&D company Galois, Inc. Galois does research in formal methods, programming languages, OS, compiler engineering, and security. Adam has worked in a variety of fields from HW synthesis to web apps, but has recently focused on network and OS security. Amongst his current jobs, he also maintains HaLVM and oversees Galois’ projects using it.

Galois focuses on cyber security, primarily serving the U.S. government, and with its NSTIC pilot funding the company will pilot a project to build a tool that can enable the storing and sharing of private information online. The data storage system will rely on biometric authentication. Project partners also plan to develop transit ticketing on smartphones and integrate the secure system into an Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart home.