Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program invests in identifying malicious actors online
December 11, 2023 - Defence Stories
The internet is decentralized, dynamic, and open, making it easy for criminals to cover their footprints and operate with different degrees of anonymity, from local targets to distant global targets connected by telecommunications, including those within the Defence Team.
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A person in a hoodie looks at computer screens in a dark room.
The IDEaS program invested in developing a solution to identify the perpetrators of sophisticated cyber threats.
That’s why the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program, working with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), launched a challenge to Canadian innovators in 2018 seeking technological solutions that could help the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) identify malicious cyber actors. Sapper Labs, an Ottawa-based company, received an initial $200,000 to advance its promising proof of concept technology, and then an additional $1 million to produce a fully functional design of an active cyber defence system capable of automated detection and identification of cyber threats.
In December 2020, Sapper Labs was then invited to advance their solution to an IDEaS “Test Drive” with a contract valued at $7.5 million to develop, build, test, and support an active cyber defence platform for CANSOFCOM on complex tactical networks in domestic and foreign deployed environments.
An IDEaS Test Drive is an opportunity for innovators to offer their ready, or near-end state solutions to the DND/CAF to test and evaluate their solutions in a real operational environment as part of a test plan. These tests allow the DND/CAF to analyze a product or service, while working with the innovators to make any required adjustments to the solution to better fit the DND/CAF’s needs.
“The IDEaS program allowed us to access innovations that are at an early technology readiness level, and then further collaborate with those innovators to develop those technologies so that they can move to a later stage of technology readiness,” said LCdr Shekhar Gothi, who was responsible for coordinating innovation requirements for CANSOFCOM.
Over the course of 24 months, through complex conditions of COVID-19 and site restrictions, the team completed the development, build, tuning, testing, and related training for DND/CAF operators on the system. The result was a fully functional active cyber defence system that was tested in Canada and foreign operational networks.
“Sapper Labs was able to achieve tremendous advancements in understanding the progressive persistent threats and how to deal with them from a cyber and intelligence perspective,” said Al Dillon, Chief Executive Officer, Sapper Labs. “Working alongside other experts in uniform, we gained an understanding of the complexity of the challenge. Working with the IDEaS program has allowed us that flexibility and collaboration through the execution to build an actual viable solution.”
Options are currently being investigated for possible further applications of the Sapper Labs solution by the DND/CAF.
Check out the Sapper Labs Test Drive profile video on social media!
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