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DARPA to Target and Eliminate Cyber-Spies with SMITE

by Warren Riddle on May 23, 2010 at 03:00 PM

darpa's SMITE campaignDARPA, the U.S. military's awesomely terrifying Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, possesses an uncanny proficiency for constructing both devastating weaponry and catchy acronyms. The organization, which has previously spawned the GUARD-DOG (Analysis for Rapid Detection - Deployed on the Ground) and RATS (Robust Automatic Transcription of Speech), is reportedly now developing a SMITE program.

According to Wired, DARPA's proposed Suspected Malicious Insider Threat Elimination system would analyze anomalous, deceptive and malevolent actions within a network. By identifying such activities, and recognizing certain tendencies, the program could conceivably "dynamically forecast" clandestine spy behavior, as well as the inadvertent dissemination of compromising information. DARPA asserts that this process of specifically snooping out traitorous -- or dangerously complacent and lazy -- behavior "could potentially be easier than recognizing explicit attacks," or unraveling complex terrorist plots.

Some U.S. officials fear that massive terrorist cyber-attacks could be inevitable, so an effective SMITE program could prove instrumental in thwarting such devious plans, even if it does inspire privacy debates. As an added plus, SMITE sounds appreciably benevolent when compared to the horrifying EATR bots that power themselves with human flesh. [From: Wired]

Tags: cyber-attack, cyber-attacks, CyberAttack, cybersecurity, DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency, eatr, top

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