NTU Singapore teams with US firm to sharpen up cybersecurity research

NTU Singapore has partnered with US-based cybersecurity firm GrammaTech to sharpen up the university's research projects with better static and binary analysis tools.

The university will use the technology to test and elaborate research hypotheses through GrammaTech's CodeSonar and CodeSurfer binary programs, which transform source code and binary programs into models.

According to Prof Thambipillai Srikanthan, Executive Director of the Cyber Security Research Centre at NTU, cybersecurity research is critical for the future.

"Cybercrimes will rise as the world becomes increasingly connected electronically, as seen with the recent hacking of networks belonging to major organizations and public services worldwide," Srikanthan comments.

"This is why rigorous cyber security research is needed as it will play an increasingly critical role to anticipate such threats and safeguard against them."

NTU Singapore is an active participant in Singapore's Cybersecurity Consortium and is highly involved in researching to better understand and prevent security breaches.

It is working alongside the likes of Verizon, FireEye and Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev to work on innovative ways to counter cyber threats.

The GrammaTech integration is another tool in NTU's mission to build a smarter and trusted digital hub.

This year GrammaTech has been crafting solutions that address software vulnerabilities, particularly in IoT devices after a successful 2016.

Last year the company came second in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Cyber Grand Challenge finale, held at DEF CON in Las Vegas.

Mark Hermeling, the company's senior director of product marketing, is excited by the NTU collaboration.

"GrammaTech addresses the increasingly complex cyber-attack and defensive-safeguards arms race through ongoing research and advancements in software assurance, software hardening, and autonomic computing," he says.

"We are looking forward to the collaboration with NTU and continue on our path to make software more secure."