UI May Get $500,000 More To Beef Up Computer Security

Growing concerns over security on the Internet has some University of Idaho computer science faculty and students looking at nearly $1 million in Department of Defense funding to make the global network safe for everyone in the virtual community.

Should a $500,000 allocation in the latest Senate Defense Appropriations Bill remain intact, the UI Computer Science department would add to the April DOD $500,000 grant for developing software that would ensure error-free software that could not be broken into and security measures that would protect Web surfers from having their computer attacked over the Internet when they use a browser to view Web pages.

The software would initiate greater levels of security, both on the offense and defense ends of the computer. Essentially, should a person invade one of the network computers that has the proposed software, other machines on the network would identify the violated computer and isolate it from the rest of the network. Meanwhile, steps would be taken to either isolate the intruder or cut off any invaders to the system. Once the machines find evidence of an infiltrated computer, security personnel would be alerted and a defense would be mounted.

The focus of the Office of Special Technology, a part of the DOD, was anti-terrorism, said Jim Alves-Foss, UI Computer Science assistant professor.

“We are developing software to be reactive and protective to the national infrastructure,” Alves-Foss said.

The concern over computer security has been growing for years. In recent years, the U.S. Government home page was attacked and altered. Last February, two California teenagers and an Israeli adult were at the core of a break-in of a Pentagon server.

Alves-Foss says the DOD is concerned about the next wave of infiltration, whether it be young domestic crackers proving their malicious worth by attacking the Pentagon, foreign agents looking to commit cyber-terrorism on the nation’s digital infrastructure, or a “hacking-for-money” assault, similar to a West German hacker group, that hacked numerous computers in the 1980s looking for U.S. defense information to sell to the Soviet Union.

“Basically, the biggest concern is that, on the Internet, everyone is local. The DOD’s concern is that anyone can get access to computers.

They have not told me of their suspicion concerns, just about security and someone breaking into the system,” Alves-Foss said.

Most of the work is expected to take six to 12 months and will be on a prototypical level, essentially having the UI create the basic software and possibly having a third party step in to develop it further at a later date.

He is one of the six faculty members, along with 12 graduate and 18 undergraduate students, affiliated with the projects. As one of the administrators of the UI project, Alves-Foss speaks with the DOD every couple of weeks.

Some of the initiatives being developed also will firm up security measures regarding electronic commerce.

“The software will make sure that I am who I am as well as getting the data that they paid for,” said AlvesFoss, who also said that the April $500,000 grant has not arrived at the UI yet.

When the second $500,000 DOD grant faces Senate approval is unknown, according to aides of Sen. Dirk Kempthorne’s, R-Idaho, who added the second grant into the Defense Appropriations Bill, current debate on tobacco legislation is holding up the vote.

THREAT Last February, two California teenagers and an Israeli adult were at the core of a break-in of a Pentagon server.