(Credit:
U.S. Department of Energy)
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created software that uses colonies of borg-like cyberrobots it says will help government agencies detect and fend off attacks on the nation's computer network infrastructure.
The Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities (Untame) differs from traditional security software agents in that its cybot "entities" form collectives that are mutually aware of the condition and activities of other bots in their colony (PDF).
When these cybots detect network intruders, they communicate with one another, preventing cybercrooks from creating and using a diversion in one spot within the network to then break through in another.
"The cybots are an inherent part of Untame's software, designed to do cybersecurity," Joe Trien, a team leader from the lab's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, said in an interview with the Daily Beacon. "Most enterprises have intrusion detection centers set up in key spots, but they don't communicate with each other. But a cybot is intended to work with other cybots, continue their mission, or regenerate when necessary so they can pick up where one left off" (PDF).
The U.S. Department of Energy commissioned the software, in response to criticism from Congress (PDF) over security lapses. It hopes for an "intelligent, self-healing, intrusion detection and prevention system" capable of real-time response and defense, one that can learn to avoid false positives and relieve human operators from sloughing through low-level alerts.
The concept of mobile, autonomous software is not one that commercial software developers have embraced, said Lawrence MacIntyre, who is also working on the project. "When you tell people you've got this software that roams, the first thing they think of is a worm," he said.
Trien says Untame is more analogous to the Borg from "Star Trek," only benign. Plus, it would be bound by mission directives to monitor and protect its assigned cyberinfrastructure--not assimilate humanity.
(Credit:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory )
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using low-cost titanium powders to develop lightweight, corrosion-resistant, bulletproof alloys for military vehicles and what they hope to be other military and commercial applications.
The latest project is a titanium door for the next-generation Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which is meant to replace the Humvee and other front-line conveyances.
"By using a titanium alloy for the door, BAE Systems was able to reduce the weight of its vehicle yet at the same time decrease the threat of armor-piercing rounds," said Bill Peter, a researcher in ORNL's Materials Science and Technology Division (PDF).
Titanium is the fourth most common structural metal around. There's more of it in the Earth's crust than all the nickel, copper, chromium, lead, tin, and zinc combined. However, the current multistep, high-temperature batch process method for refining the ore into metal is extremely expensive.
There's a push to change that. The new nonmelt processing technique employed by ORNL and partners could cut costs by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, artificial joint replacements, and armor and other defense applications, according to ORNL.
One of those partners is International Titanium Powders, a company that wants to use something called the Armstrong Process to produce titanium and titanium alloys at a cost and quantity it believes will radically change the market (PDF).
"Instead of using conventional melt processing to produce products from titanium powder, with the new method, the powders remain in their solid form during the entire procedure," Peter said. "This saves a tremendous amount of energy required for processing, greatly reduces the amount of scrap, and allows for new alloys and engineered composites."
Saving money on bulletproof doors is a start; now maybe they can find a cheaper way to make the Pentagon's gold-plated toilet seats.
(Credit:
Army Research Laboratory)
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