A trio of senators introduced legislation May 13 that would create several cyber grand challenges aimed at improving the overall cybersecurity of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill, called the “\u2018Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems Act of 2020, or CYBER LEAP Act, would direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish at least five public competitions that would allow participants to submit solutions for some of the most pressing cybersecurity challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grand challenges offer the public cash or non-cash prizes to solve some of the federal government\u2019s most pressing issues. The bill was introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One challenge under the bill would tackle the \u201ceconomics\u201d of cyberattacks. Under that challenge, respondents would submit innovative ways to raise the cost of an adversary\u2019s cyberattack. A major problem for cyber defenders is that the cost of carrying out a cyberattack is very low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another challenge seeks solutions to reduce cyberattacks on federal networks and improve agencies\u2019 responses to incidents. A third challenge set would ask for ways to improve the digital literacy of Americans, as well as the need to develop a cyber workforce with \u201cmeasurable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese prize-based contests are designed to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors and academia in order to develop cutting-edge ideas in cybersecurity,\u201d Wicker said in a statement. “This legislation would be instrumental in encouraging American ingenuity, and I am eager to see it advance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final two challenges call for \u201creimagining digital identity\u201d to increase online security for Americans and an effort to advance cybersecurity efforts in the face of threats posed by quantum computing, 5G and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe put our nation at risk if we don\u2019t invest in our cybersecurity workforce and infrastructure,\u201d Rosen said in a statement. \u201cAs our world becomes more digitized, I\u2019m proud to help introduce this bill to assist our nation in developing a cybersecurity workforce with the skills needed to protect and maintain information systems and improve critical federal agencies\u2019 security and safety.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea for cybersecurity grand challenges came from the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee\u2019s report on a \u201cCybersecurity Moonshot\u201d that came out in November 2018, which outlined potential actions to improve the nation\u2019s cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other agencies, such challenges have eventually led to new contracts. On May 11, the Defense Innovation Unit awarded a $45 million to a Silicon Valley-based tech startup, ForAllSecure, to perform cybersecurity testing on Defense Department weapon systems\u2019 applications. In 2016, the company\u2019s Mayhem platform won DARPA\u2019s Cyber Grand Challenge, an automated defensive cybersecurity competition. That victory came with a $2 million prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The grand challenges stem from the 2018 Cybersecurity Moonshot report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":31,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,110,14,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3242],"class_list":["post-14041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-cloud-report","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DINKYESTLNGZRB3LK2BQSLD2LA","arc_canonical_url":"\/workforce\/education-training\/2020\/05\/14\/senators-introduce-bill-creating-cyber-grand-challenges\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n