Pikewerks Joins the Radiance Technologies AMCOM EXPRESS Technical Team
12.23.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been added to the Radiance Technologies U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) Expedited Professional & Engineering Support Services (EXPRESS) Contract as a subcontractor. AMCOM Express is an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide advisory and assistance services to AMCOM and its customers. The contract provides technical support for Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), the Program Executive Offices (PEOs) and allies for fielded Army aviation and missile systems. The U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Command established four domains for the AMCOM EXPRESS Program: Technical, Logistics, Programmatic, and Business & Analytics. Radiance Technologies is a prime contract holder for the Technical Domain.
Pikewerks Awarded Air Force Contract to Develop Cyber Situation Awareness Software
11.23.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a six-month contract from the Air Force to create an extensible, scalable, secure situation awareness and enterprise health solution. Data Aggregation and Visualization Environment (DAVE) for portraying situation awareness and overall enterprise health within a cyber network will be platform independent, support multiple domains and provide an interface for distributed plugins. The distributed plugins will be used for data processing, collection, and dispatching agents for situation awareness, healing and new sensor types. As new technologies, sensors, and network devices become available, support for these devices can be easily integrated into the system via a service-oriented architecture with modular components.
Pikewerks Awarded Air Force Contract to Develop Countermeasures to Covert Access Methods
11.19.2009
The majority of existing computer security products and software development efforts have assumed that the Operating System kernel, firmware, and low-level subsystems of the underlying computer architecture are trusted entities. However, recent demonstrations of novel and sophisticated attacks on several fundamental components found in standard laptops, desktops, and servers have emphasized that the foundations of trust upon which critical systems are built must be thoroughly re-examined. The goal of this new Phase I SBIR effort is to address deep-level vulnerabilities within computer systems through the development of a novel proactive monitoring approach for detecting and preventing even the most sophisticated covert access methods from achieving successful exploitation. The result of this Phase I effort will be a security design and proof-of-concept implementation that reduces a system's susceptibility to low-level exploits while also providing high assurance that the fundamental components and devices of the computer system are operating in a trustworthy manner.
Pikewerks Awarded Air Force Contract to Develop Software that can Fight Through an Attack
11.09.2009
Current software protection technology attempts to defeat piracy and reverse engineering attacks by invoking hard penalties after an attack has been detected. This approach is not feasible in mission critical scenarios where a system must remain operational. The goal of this new Phase I SBIR effort is to develop techniques that are capable of actively preventing and deflecting attacks, while maintaining the functionality and trustworthiness of the protected system. According to Pikewerks CTO Jonathan Kline, "this effort is designed to anticipate problems early using behavior characterization, and take proactive steps to avoid or mitigate the true intent of the attacker by using illusion and deception to impact an attacker's Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) loop. The resulting research is designed to enable protected systems to fight through an attack."
Pikewerks Awarded Phase III Contract for Anti-Forensics Tailoring and Customization
10.26.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a six-month, Phase III contract from a Department of Defense (DoD) prime contactor for additional development and tailoring of its Anti-Forensics capability. The ongoing Phase II SBIR Anti-Forensics effort is focused on developing techniques to obscure data storage, transmission, and execution in such a way that it remains hidden from even a professional, dedicated examiner with physical access to the system. "This new Phase III contract will expand a unique element of our Anti-Forensics tool suite in order to utilize the capability for field deployment, further demonstrating our commitment to commercializing SBIR technology" said Pikewerks COO, Michael Ring.
Visit Pikewerks at ATAP DC Chapter Meeting
07.15.2009
Visit Pikewerks at the DC Association of Threat Assessment Professionals meeting July 22 in Arlington, VA. Andrew Tappert, a computer security researcher and software developer with Pikewerks Corporation will speak about detecting stealthy intruders. Andrew is the project leader for Second LookTM, Pikewerks' volatile memory forensics product. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to atapdc@atapdc.com.
Pikewerks Awarded Phase III Contract for Electronic Armor® Tailoring and Customization
06.26.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a one year, Phase III SBIR contract for additional development and tailoring of its Electronic Armor software protection capability. The Electronic Armor suite of products are specifically designed to ensure long-term security of proprietary algorithms and sensitive data throughout the deployment life cycle. Electronic Armor protects sensitive applications against unauthorized access, copying, reverse engineering, or other tampering. In addition to binary executables, Electronic Armor also protects shared libraries, scripts, and input/output data files. According to Pikewerks CEO, Sandy Ring, "this contract demonstrates Pikewerks continued focus on the technical development of advanced kernel, hypervisor, and firmware-level security solutions that provide uniquely strong protection for critical intellectual property and sensitive applications."
Pikewerks Becomes a Cross-Shares IDIQ Team Member
05.07.2009
Pikewerks is excited to announce that it is a member of the Cross-Shares Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Air Force Research Laboratory contract recently awarded to Architecture Technology Corporation (ATC). Cross-Shares: Secure Sharing Across Domain Boundaries, will provide a contract vehicle to support the development of common plans, research and development, experimentation, demonstration, and transition for secure data sharing technology. Cross-shares includes both large and small companies and is lead by ATC. Pikewerks will utilize Cross-Shares to transition its Cross Domain Digital Rights Management capability into the field.
Visit Pikewerks at the NASA / Army Systems and Software Forum
05.06.2009
Visit Pikewerks at the NASA / Army Systems and Software Forum which will be held May 12-13, 2009 at the Marshall Space Flight Center Morris Auditorium and Learning Center in Huntsville, AL. Founder and CEO Sandy Ring will be speaking about Information Protection at the conference.
Visit Pikewerks at the 9th Annual DoD Anti-Tamper Conference
04.27.2009
Visit Pikewerks at the 9th Annual DoD Anti-Tamper Conference which will be held April 28-30, 2009 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Vice President Irby Thompson, Jr. will be speaking about Environmental-based Key Generation at the conference.
Pikewerks has researched and developed an approach for strengthening symmetric key cryptosystems by reducing, and in many cases eliminating, the need for persistent key storage. This work is based upon the dynamic generation of cryptographic keys on an as-needed basis through the collection, interpolation, and hashing of characteristics inherent to the physical and virtual operating environment. To demonstrate the feasibility and security of this capability in a working system, the Environmental-based Key Generation approach has been integrated into both Pikewerks' Electronic Armor®, a kernel-based software protection capability, and Binary FortressTM, an upcoming hypervisor-based system protection capability.
"One major goal of our effort is to force an attacker into the field in order to attempt defeat of anti-tamper measures that protect critical technology", said Irby Thompson, Jr., "working in the field significantly raises the risk profile and operational difficulty for an attacker, and may be an effective deterrent against attack."
Pikewerks Presents the 1st Annual Pikewerks Bluegrass Festival
04.20.2009
Pikewerks will be hosting a free bluegrass concert on Thursday, April 23rd 2009 to support the Madison Greenway and Trails' Mill Creek Greenway project. The festival will begin at 6:00pm and will feature two bluegrass bands: Dry Branch Fire Squad and The Kudzu String Band. A Virginia-based, traditional bluegrass quartet, Dry Branch Fire Squad was formed in 1976 by Ron Thomason. The band is nationally acclaimed, having played for the National Council for the Traditional Arts and the Smithsonian Institute, and boasts over 21 projects in its discography. Dry Branch Fire Squad is lauded for their loyalty to traditional gospel and bluegrass music and culture, and are praised for their highly emotional and entertaining performances. The Kudzu String Band, formed in 2003, is a more contemporary band from Marion Junction, AL. They blend, in their own words, a "raucous" old-timey music, with scenes from rural southern life and a sense of humor. In addition to the bands, there will be raffle drawings for various prizes to help raise funds for Madison Greenway and Trails. Also, BBQ sandwiches and refreshments will be on sale from Chuck Wagon BBQ, and patrons will also have a chance to sign up with Madison Greenway and Trails for volunteer work or to become a member. The founders of Pikewerks, Michael and Sandy Ring, are hoping that the festival will be both entertaining and inspirational for Madison residents interested in seeing their community grow and improve: "We love bluegrass music, and we love living in Madison, so it's really special being able to bring the two together. But more important than the festival, is the chance to raise awareness for MGT and get people involved in working to improve their community. Madison is already a great place to live, but if we all pitch in and invest some of our time, we can make it even better."
Visit Pikewerks During the Charleston Defense Contractor Association (CDCA) Industry Symposium
04.16.2009
Visit Pikewerks during the Charleston Defense Contractor Association (CDCA) Industry Outreach Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, April 23. Pikewerks will speak about its Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored cyber security, information assurance, anti-tamper, information operations, forensics, and anti-forensics software development efforts during the Symposium. Following the presentation, Pikewerks will provide demonstrations of the software protection capability Electronic Armor® and its newest product, Second LookTM for volatile memory acquisition and analysis.
The focus of CDCA is to address issues and opportunities facing the Charleston, South Carolina defense industry. In doing so it performs as an advocacy group for the local defense industry, provides liaison with local, state, and federal governments, and fosters the increased and improved interaction between defense contractors and defense customers. Additional information about CDCA and the upcoming Industry Symposium can be found at http://www.charlestondca.org/.
Visit Pikewerks During the 2009 Redstone Arsenal IT Security and Assurance Conference
04.06.2009
Visit Pikewerks during the 2009 Redstone Arsenal IT Security and Assurance Conference April 14-15 in Huntsville, AL. Pikewerks will be demonstrating software that can be used to protect the warfighter at home and abroad.
Pikewerks Receives MDA Contract for Anti-Tamper Penalty and Response
04.01.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I SBIR contract to develop a prototype system capable of responding to tamper events, thus reducing an attacker's access to Critical Program Information (CPI). The focus of this research effort will be on integrating safe destruction of CPI, surreptitious configuration alteration, irreversible performance degradation, and threat-level responses into an anti-tamper solution. The goal of the research is to add longevity to critical technology by reducing the effectiveness of reverse engineering and system exploitation
Pikewerks Opens Seattle WA Metro Area Office
03.23.2009
Pikewerks Corporation, a leading provider of computer security products and advanced research and development, announced today that it has opened an office in the Seattle, WA Metro Area. The office, located in downtown Seattle, will allow Pikewerks to better serve it's Pacific Northwest business partners and recruit local cutting-edge kernel level developers. Sandy Ring, Founder/CEO of Pikewerks, says "This opening continues Pikewerks' long term expansion plan; one that ultimately leads to project offices in key locations throughout the country. While the current economic conditions have caused many medium and large sized companies to downsize, Pikewerks is poised to double in size again over the next 12-24 months as it commercializes products, takes on new customers, and increases its core competencies". Pikewerks currently maintains two complete product lines available for immediate licensing, Electronic Armor® software protection capabilities and Second Look® memory forensics tools.
Pikewerks Receives $1M Contract Enhancement to Develop Real-Time OS Software Protection
02.24.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a $1M enhancement to its existing Phase II SBIR Software Situational Awareness contract for the development of advanced anti-tamper techniques within Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS). A significant amount of technology critical to national defense is located within real-time environments - often on embedded systems and other small form factors, such as single board computers. This critical technology is frequently left unprotected, or is only protected through physical anti-tamper solutions. To date, embedded systems have not been afforded the robust protections available to high performance and general purpose computing platforms. While physical anti-tamper may delay attacks by making key material more difficult to reach, key material is still present on the device and every I/O connection or user interface presents a significant weakness in the physical anti-tamper protection scheme.
Pikewerks intends to leverage its existing knowledge of software situational awareness and protection capabilities in order to research and develop robust anti-tamper solutions for real-time environments. This capability will be used in high performance real-time and embedded systems to provide additional protection of critical technology. The developed solution is designed to conform to real-time scheduling and concurrency idioms, permitting the protection technology to be seamlessly integrated into existing real-time and embedded systems. The protection capabilities will be integrated with the Board Support Package (BSP), thus providing tight integration with system hardware and other physical anti-tamper technology. At the conclusion of this effort, Pikewerks will provide Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 6 RTOS software protection and situational awareness solutions that are ready to be integrated and deployed in the field.
Pikewerks Receives Contract for IPv6 Transition and Tunneling Assurance Tool
02.09.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I SBIR contract to develop a prototype system to increase the security and assurance of IPv6 networks. Most computer systems and network appliances now incorporate some portion of the IPv6 protocol suite in addition to providing IPv4 communication; however, the vast majority of network and system administrators are only beginning to learn how to deploy a properly configured IPv6 network. The process is complicated by the need to support IPv6 and IPv4 simultaneously. It is not uncommon for a supposedly IPv4-only network to contain systems that are capable of propagating IPv6 traffic without the administrator being aware of this configuration. Of particular concern are tunneling protocols that allow IPv6 traffic to traverse an IPv4 networks without any authentication. These protocols have been created to encourage the early adoption of IPv6 even in the absence of IPv6 infrastructure, but pose a security risk. In this effort, Pikewerks will research and develop methods that address network security deficiencies introduced by dual-stack network configurations. Three key areas of focus will be: IPv6 network analysis to inform administrators of the presence of IPv6 capability and the potential for network configuration information leaks, 2) Active monitoring of network boundary ingress and egress via IPv6 through IPv4 tunnels, and 3) Tunnel authentication through digital watermarking. "This contract marks a key expansion of our cyber security products by reaching beyond application and data protection to address vulnerabilities in network protocols as well", said Sandy Ring CEO of Pikewerks. "We are excited about this opportunity to research and develop new solutions that address potential risks associated with emerging IPv6 networks."
Pikewerks Receives Contract for Network Watermarking Dissemination and Authentication
02.05.2009
Pikewerks Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a two year, Phase II SBIR contract to develop techniques for invisible watermarking of digital data for dissemination and authentication. Current mainstream net-centric data assurance and authentication technologies rely heavily on the use of encryption. These methods, while effective, could be greatly improved by the addition of watermarking techniques. Digital watermarking can be defined as the act of transparently embedding an identifiable token within digital media. This token, or watermark, can later be used to authenticate the media.
The goal of this project is: to transparently embed an identifiable token within an object, to be revealed at a later time for the purpose of authentication. Watermarking technology has been widely used by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and anti-counterfeiting groups for a number of years. The security community shares a common goal with the aforementioned organizations, namely positive identification and information authentication. Data assurance and authentication, within a networked environment, can be achieved through the use of watermarking. All of the traffic and corresponding nodes can be positively identified by their respective watermark. This would allow secondary nodes and routers to securely verify the destination and source of all network traffic, ensuring that: 1) The data originated from a trusted host, 2) The data reaches its appropriate destination, and 3) The recipient has the necessary access privileges to accept the data in question.
Pikewerks believes that network-watermarking technology can be utilized as a value-added approach to provide increased assurance of information assets within government and commercial environments. The development and adoption of Pikewerks' highly secure technology will significantly raise the level of effort required by adversaries to obtain and exploit unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Visit Pikewerks During the 2009 DOD Cyber Crime Conference
01.23.2009
Visit Pikewerks during the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Conference at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, January 26-30. Pikewerks will host a booth during the exhibition and will be unveiling its newest product, Second LookTM for volatile memory analysis. Software threats have become increasingly sophisticated, to the point where traditional disk-based forensic techniques are no longer sufficient to detect malicious activities. Instead, volatile memory forensics is required to truly determine the integrity and trustworthiness of the operating system.
Malicious kernel modifications such as those made by rootkits and other advanced malware can be quickly identified, and even removed, through live access to local or remote memory sources. Stored memory snapshots can also be analyzed and modified. Anomalies detected by Second Look include hidden kernel modules, hidden processes, hidden network connections, altered executable code, altered function pointers, and other kinds of kernel hooks. Identified discrepancies are displayed to the user in a graphical application, with relevant information clearly highlighted. The user can then explore links between individual changes, system software, and attack methods.
Second Look is being developed in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL) under a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Early adopter releases of Second Look are currently available, and will allow ongoing development of Second Look to be tailored to your usage requirements and operational needs. Please contact the development team at info@pikewerks.com for further details.
This year Pikewerks will also be participating in the silent auction which will raise money for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Place bids on our prize items to support a good cause.
Area Companies Secure Intelligence Funding
01.08.2009
Pikewerks Corporation, a leading provider of computer security products and anti-tamper solutions, and Innovative Signals Technology (ISigTech), a leading provider of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) products announced today that they have been awarded research and development funding from the Department of Defense to provide secure SIGINT capabilities in support of border security and counterterrorism initiatives. This effort will provide Intelligence Community (IC) customers with a cost effective solution that incorporates advanced SIGINT technology with built-in state-of-the-art electronic security protection. "By implementing protection mechanisms within our SIGINT products, we are proactively addressing the emerging need for innovative, secure intelligence capabilities while maintaining flexibility and cost effectiveness" said Greg McDaniel, CEO of ISigTech. This joint endeavor marks the start of a partnership between two fast-growing, high tech companies in North Alabama - ISigTech is headquartered in Scottsboro, Alabama and Pikewerks is headquartered in Madison, Alabama. The companies look forward to a long-lasting partnership on this and other government projects.