A 'Powerful' Cyber Tool Created by Government Now On the Market
After three years in development, the Network Mapping System has moved into the commercial market.
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has just introduced a fresh piece of cybersecurity technology into the commercial market.
The Network Mapping System is a software tool meant to help users protect their network by detailing everything connected to it, including the types of machines, operating systems and routing infrastructure.
On Wednesday, DHS announced the system had been licensed to the Arlington-based firm, Cambridge Global Advisors. The company will now build a product from the technology.
Networks have become more complex as more people and businesses use cloud computing and mobile devices, which can make protecting them a challenge.
“When you have a tool that can go out and tell you everything that's connected to your network and classify things that are happening on your network . . . it is a powerful tool,” Mike Pozmantier, who helped lead the technology through the commercialization process, told Nextgov.
The system is designed to provide users with pertinent data discovered by it, which can then be processed, viewed and analyzed. The information can then be presented through a visualization tool called Everest.
The Network Mapping System is the third piece of technology licensed for commercialization by the Science and Technology Directorate. It follows the release of a quantum encryption tool and malware-detection software.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a national security lab in California, developed the technology.
The transition into the marketplace took three years, according to DHS. The agency’s Transition to Practice program identifies federally funded cybersecurity technologies and helps them enter the commercial marketplace. Launched in 2012, the program is housed within the Science and Technology Directorate’s cybersecurity division.
Today, the program has 24 technologies ready for the marketplace. It plans to announce the transition of another one of them into the marketplace next week, according to Pozmantier, who oversees the transition program.
Over the next few months, the program plans to add eight more technologies to its docket.