US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#1

Post by ariabov » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 9:47 PM UTC

US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure
sbirsource.com

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#2

Post by NinjaSudo » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:11 PM UTC

The fact that this project is "focused on reducing the impact of short life cycles for commercial mobile devices" excites me as I'm sure many folks dislike how quickly technology grows obsolete and stale when you just bought a new phone and a new one comes out a few weeks later. That being said, security of mobile devices is an increasingly important issue as we become more and more reliant on information connectivity for our daily lives.

I would be curious to hear the results of Phase I and of course look at the framework they use to extend the Android OS.

Why not try to commit the Security extensions into the Android project?

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#3

Post by jiggy2011 » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:15 PM UTC

Note: By "less hackable" they mean "more secure" and not "less open".

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#4

Post by shubb » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:24 PM UTC

Summary -

The US navy wants to use (near) commercial android devices. These might be used to display confidential reports (as in a normal buisness), but may also be used to control the ship.

The navy already have secure versions of Linux and Windows, and want something similar for android.

This will take the form of additional security layers, similar to the ones the NSA did for Linux[1].

Some of them will be made commercially available, hopefully increasing security to the whole platform. If this included e.g. application sandboxing, you can see that it would be of general interest, particularly to people with similar needs (Android based control terminal for a power station, or sys admin wants to roll out policy to coorp devices).

Android is becoming the default embedded OS for a lot of UI, so it's really nice to see this.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-Enhanced_Linux

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#5

Post by vabmit » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:38 PM UTC

The DoD is committing to Android as a platform in a massive way. Apps 4 Army is a key example. The push is so large and widespread that I think it will force the whole US Gov't along with it. Everyone from political leaders, to soldiers, to doctors at VA hospitals, to employees at defense contractors, will be required to use Android because of government security certifications and custom apps. There's a good chance that Android will become the very dominant winner in the mobile platform space because of this.

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#6

Post by eterm » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:39 PM UTC

NinjaSudo wrote: post #2

The fact that this project is "focused on reducing the impact of short life cycles for commercial mobile devices" excites me as I'm sure many folks dislike how quickly technology grows obsolete and stale when you just bought a new phone and a new one comes out a few weeks later. That being said, security of mobile devices is an increasingly important issue as we become more and more reliant on information connectivit…

They didn't say they're lengthening the life cycle, they said they plan on reducing the security impact of such short life cycles.

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#7

Post by out_of_protocol » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:41 PM UTC

Raise of android-based embedded devices is coming. Android already ate ~70% of selling smartphones and now spreading to non-phone areas, like car systems, fridges, cash machines and so on. I really hope android will become even more secure in next few years. Otherwise ... imagine it by ourselves

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#8

Post by sigzero » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:43 PM UTC

vabmit wrote: post #5

The DoD is committing to Android as a platform in a massive way. Apps 4 Army is a key example. The push is so large and widespread that I think it will force the whole US Gov't along with it. Everyone from political leaders, to soldiers, to doctors at VA hospitals, to employees at defense contractors, will be required to use Android because of government security certifications and custom apps. There's a good chance…

Now there is some pie-in-the-sky hope. I don't think it is going to play out that way though.

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#9

Post by jjohnson » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:48 PM UTC

For all of you Flipper fanatics, I found a gem of a funding source "To develop probiotic pharmaceuticals to treat and prevent gastrointestinal disease in dolphins and improve their health through the utilization of indigenous commensal microbes of these marine mammals." https://sbirsource.com/grantiq#/topics/87793 . Big money to solve these big problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S6PPKUDGfc

Re: US Navy to pay $1M to make Android more secure

#10

Post by salem » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 10:51 PM UTC

sigzero wrote: post #8

vabmit wrote: post #5

The DoD is committing to Android as a platform in a massive way. Apps 4 Army is a key example. The push is so large and widespread that I think it will force the whole US Gov't along with it. Everyone from political leaders, to soldiers, to doctors at VA hospitals, to employees at defense contractors, will be required to use Android because of government security certifications and custom apps. There's a good chance…

Now there is some pie-in-the-sky hope. I don't think it is going to play out that way though.

It would be pretty irresponsible for them to standardize on a single source vendor for this, so what are the alternatives? WinMo? Plus the government already has a long history of investing R&D into securing linux-based systems.