UK, US, and Canadian defense agencies team up to drive cybersecurity research

The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is teaming up with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Canadian Department of National Defence to work together on cybersecurity.

The idea is to jointly research, develop, test and evaluate technologies for AI, cyber, resilient systems, and information-related technologies in the defense sector, all based on real-world challenges.

“Our international research collaborations with both the US and Canada are some of our most vital and enduring partnerships,” said Dr Nick Joad, director, science and technology, at the Ministry of Defence.

“This agreement cements our collective commitments to advancing emerging cybersecurity technologies such as artificial intelligence to enhance the defense and security of our nations.”

One joint research project that’s already under way is the Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments (CASTLE) program, which trains AI to autonomously defend networks against advanced persistent cyber threats.

Meanwhile, DARPA said researchers are working on interoperable defensive cyber capabilities, creating test beds that simulate a network architecture. The aim is to create AI-based defensive software to assess, categorize, and generate a response to cyber threats more quickly.

Other research and development areas in the pipeline include human-AI teaming, including military medical triage, and defining and creating trustworthy AI systems.

The countries will also work to protect, detect attacks on, and monitor networks, and to produce new tools and policies aimed at speeding up the certification of software.

“We know we’re stronger together than separately. The trilateral collaboration is a big step toward enhancing our understanding in the outlined research and development thrust areas,” said DARPA director Stefanie Tompkins.

“Working with our international partners on science and technology helps us all leverage each other’s individual strengths in order to develop much greater collective capability.”

The MoD has been working to improve operational security and resilience since 2022, when it introduced a new ‘secure by design’ strategy that it said should make it resilient to “all known cyber security vulnerabilities” and attack methods by 2030.

However, in September 2023, thousands of pages of sensitive information were leaked by the LockBit ransomware gang, after the hack of contractor Zaun, a West Midlands-based fencing systems manufacturer.

The hack was believed to have taken place in August, with the stolen data including sales data and details of equipment used at GCHQ’s Bude satellite ground station and network monitoring site, RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

In January this year, the MoD was rated as having the most vulnerable IT systems in Whitehall, with 11 ‘red-rated’ systems, defined as being exposed to critical levels of risk. It has since ramped up its bug bounty program, through an expanded collaboration with HackerOne.