GCN by Derek Major
Full Article

WASHINGTON – In an effort to encourage new technologies to defend against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has awarded eight grants worth a total of $14 million.

The eight award winners and the amount they will receive are:

• University of California, San Diego: $1.3 million
• University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute: $1.8 million
• Colorado State University: $2.7 million
• University of Houston, Texas: $2.6 million
• University of Delaware: $1.9 million
• University of Oregon: $1.3 million
• Waverley Labs of Waterford, Virginia: $629,992
• Galois Inc. of Portland, Oregon: $1.7 million

DDoS attacks are used to overwhelm a target’s computer systems, preventing legitimate users from accessing them and creating opportunities to breach their security.  The funded research will focus on slowing the growth rate of such attacks, making current attacks harder to execute and developing tools and techniques that allow organizations to respond to attacks. Research will also go toward addressing new threats that may target non-traditional clients such as emergency management systems.