Program Summary
Modern computing systems are incapable of creating sufficient security protections such that they can be trusted with the most sensitive data while simultaneously being exposed to untrusted data streams. In certain places, the Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial industry have adopted a series of air-gaps – or breaks between computing systems – to prevent the leakage and compromise of sensitive information. However, the use of air-gaps does not address the DoD’s need for fusion of data across systems of different levels to support defense operations. Similarly, the increasing use of cloud architectures demands better solutions for data privacy in commercial computing systems.
The Guaranteed Architectures for Physical Security (GAPS) program seeks to reduce inherent system complexity through the development of hardware and software that is open, extendible, and compatible with Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constrained environments to enable security across DoD and commercial systems. The goal of the GAPS program is to develop hardware security and software architectures with provable security interfaces, which physically isolate high-risk transactions during system design and system build, and track that such protections are physically enforced at run-time.
GAPS aims to substantially lower the barrier to safely enable high-risk transactions, thus allowing for: a) faster computer to computer transactions; b) spatial isolation reducing the need for insufficient software partitioning solutions (i.e. hypervisors); and c) more complex missions without putting sensitive data at risk.