DARPA calls for bids in hardware security program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has reached out to industry for assistance in a potential 39-month program to develop hardware design tools with inherent security.

DARPA released a broad agency announcement April 19 for the System Security Integrated Through Hardware and Firmware program that seeks to defend against vulnerabilities exploited through software in military and commercial electronic systems.

A contract for SSITH would be worth up to $50 million over an initial 15-month base period and a pair of subsequent 12-month periods.

Through SSITH, DARPA aims to spur new research in hardware security at the microarchitecture level and work closer with system-on-chip designers to protect platforms against different classes of software.

Proposals for SSITH are due to DARPA on June 5. An award is scheduled for October with the start date one month later, according to Deltek.