Singapore and Israeli universities combine to counter cyber threats

Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) are working together on innovative ways to combat cyber threats. The joint research project, called the Bio-Inspired Agile Cyber Security Assurance Framework (BICSAF), hopes to create innovative technologies for countering advanced persistent threats, which pose a problem to present methods of detection due to their long periods of covertness. The venture will receive S$3 million (US$2.1 million) in joint funding from NTU, BGU and Singapore’s National Research Foundation. Led by the Cyber Security Research Centre at NTU, faculty and researchers from both universities will be involved in developing new technologies to counter cyber threats. Inspiration comes from the ability of the human immune system to adapt and fight ever-evolving bacteria and viruses. Prof Lam said, “Through this partnership, NTU and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be able to develop innovative methods for combating one of the most complicated problems in cyber security – Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). This project will leverage on NTU’s strong hardware-based research expertise and BGU’s software-based core competences to combat this intractable problem.”