Besides developing and testing new weapons and defenses in real time, the NCR will also allow cyber warriors to manipulate time, said Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for DARPA. "Sometimes you need to see how a computer program works faster than in real time," said Walker. "Other times you want to slow down time because computers often take actions so quickly you can't see what happened in real time." Time is ultimately the problem, says Adams, and in cyber warfare the attacker has the benefit of time. A defender has to defend against all weak points in a system, while an attacker has virtually unlimited time and resources to plan a coordinated attack. The NCR should help shore up America's computer vulnerabilities while giving (virtually) armed forces the means to strike back. "The weapons needed for cyber defense are much more sophisticated than in the real world," said Adams. "I was trained for years as a mechanical engineer, so I don't like to say it, but computer defense is an order of magnitude more difficult in cyber space than in the real world." Contractors on the project cannot currently comment on the NCR. Related Links: |
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