[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 39 (Monday, March 2, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9110-9112]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-4321]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Request for Input (RFI)--National Cyber Leap Year

AGENCY: The National Coordination Office (NCO) for Networking 
Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD), NSF.

ACTION: Request for Input (RFI).

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tomas Vagoun at [email protected] or 
(703) 292-4873. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the 
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-
800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through 
Friday.

DATES: To be considered, submissions must be received by April, 15, 
2009.
    Overview: This Request for Input No. 3 (RFI-3) is the third issued 
under the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), 
established within Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-23. 
RFI-3 was developed by the Networking and Information Technology 
Research and Development (NITRD) Program Senior Steering Group (SSG) 
for Cybersecurity to invite participation in a National Cyber Leap Year 
whose goal is an integrated national approach to make cyberspace safe 
for the American way of life. Over 160 responses were submitted to the 
first RFI issued by the NITRD SSG (October 14, 2008), indicating a 
strong desire by the technical community to participate. RFI-2 (issued 
on December 30, 2008) expanded the opportunity for participation by 
permitting submitters to designate parts of submissions as proprietary. 
RFI-3 presents prospective cyber security categories derived from 
responses to RFI-1 for further consideration.
    Background: We are a cyber nation. The U.S. information 
infrastructure--including telecommunications and computer networks and 
systems and the data that reside on them--is critical to virtually 
every aspect of modern life. This information infrastructure is 
increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, disruption, and destruction by 
a growing array of adversaries. The President's CNCI plan calls for 
leap-ahead research and technology to reduce vulnerabilities to 
asymmetric attack in cyberspace. Unlike many research agenda that aim 
for steady progress in the advancement of science, the leap-ahead 
effort seeks just a few revolutionary ideas with the potential to 
reshape the landscape. These game-changing technologies (or non-
technical mechanisms that are made possible through technology), 
developed and deployed over the next decade, will fundamentally change 
the cyber game into one where the good guys have an advantage. Leap-
ahead technologies are so-called because they enable us to leap over 
the obstacles preventing us from being where we want to be. These 
advances may require years of concerted research and development to be 
fully realized; good ideas often do. However, the intent is to start 
now and gain momentum as intermediate results emerge.
    Objective: The National Cyber Leap Year has two main goals: (1) 
Constructing a national research and technology agenda that both 
identifies the most promising ideas and describes the strategy that 
brings those ideas to fruition; and (2) jumpstarting game-changing, 
multi-disciplinary development efforts. The Leap Year will run during 
fiscal year 2009, and will comprise two stages: Prospecting and 
focusing.
    Stage One canvasses the cybersecurity community for ideas. Our aim 
is to hear from all those who wish to help.
    The heart of Stage Two, which begins March 1, 2009, is a series of 
workshops to explore the best ideas from Stage One. As the year 
progresses, we will publish four types of findings: (1) Game-changers--
descriptions of the paradigm-busters that technology will make 
possible; (2) Technical Strategy--as specifically as possible, the 
invention and/or research that needs to be done; (3) Productization/
Implementation--how the capability will be packaged, delivered, and 
used, and by whom; and (4) Recommendations--prescriptions for success, 
to include funding, policies, authorities, tasking--whatever would 
smooth the way to realization of the game-changing capability.
    Deadline for Submission under this RFI-3: The third, and final 
round of the Stage One cycle is covered by this RFI-3 and will close 
April 15, 2009.

Stage One Description

    What We are Looking for: Contributors may submit up to 3 leap-ahead 
technology concepts. Multidisciplinary contributions from organizations 
with cybersecurity interests are especially encouraged. Cognizant of 
the limits of conventional studies and reports, we have given 
substantial thought to what framework and methodology might render the 
community's best ideas understandable, compelling, and actionable to 
those who need to support them, fund them, and adopt them. Since our 
search is for game-changing concepts, we ask that submitters explain 
their ideas in terms of a game. Many ideas will fall into the following 
three categories. Ideas that:
    Morph the Gameboard (Change the defensive terrain [permanently or 
adaptively] to make it harder for the attacker to maneuver and achieve 
his goals.)
    Example: Non-persistent virtual machines--every time the enemy 
takes a hill, the hill goes away.
    Change the Rules (Lay the foundation for cyber civilization by 
changing network protocols and norms to favor our society's values.)
    Example: The no-call list--direct marketers have to ``attack'' on 
customer terms now.
    Raise the Stakes (Make the cost to play less advantageous to the 
attacker by raising risk, lowering value, etc.)
    Example: Charging for email--making the SPAMmer ante up means a lot 
more fish have to bite for SPAM to pay.
    Ideas that change the game in some other dimension are also 
welcome; just be sure to explain how. The rationale for

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why the idea is game-changing should be the central focus of each 
submission.
    Submitters are encouraged to explore the following categories, 
which were derived by the NITRD SSG from the review of RFI-1 
submissions. These categories encompass promising concepts identified 
by compelling submissions and may be fruitful themes for additional 
game-changing insights:
    Attribution--Technologies and methods to establish that a 
particular entity (person, host, event) is the originator of an object 
(e.g. data) or the cause of an effect.
    Cyber Economics--Security decision-making frameworks that 
incorporate economic insights; understanding and altering economic 
value-chains to make cyber security exploits increasingly expensive for 
attackers.
    Disaster Recovery--Recovery in the event of a large-scale 
disruption of national cyber assets.
    Network Ecology--Incorporating end-to-end network management 
techniques to control access to and allocation of network resources; 
modeling of acceptable host and network activities.
    Policy-based Configuration/Implementation--Standards-based security 
policy definitions and enforcement frameworks; architectures and 
techniques for implementing fine-coarse access and permission controls.
    Randomization/Moving Target--Software diversity that randomizes 
code structure; virtualization techniques that hide, obscure, move, and 
alter; randomizing and obfuscating network resources, IP addresses, and 
the operating system; time-varying, crypto-based identities to identify 
services, hosts, interfaces, networks and users.
    Secure Data--Building provenance and access controls into the 
fabric of digital data.
    Software Assurance--Security-focused system assurance programming 
languages.
    Virtualization--Cloud-based virtual desktops for stateless thin 
clients; high-security hypervisors; least-authority execution via 
adaptive sandboxes.
    Submissions in areas outside these categories will also be 
considered.
    Who can Participate: This RFI-3 is open to all and we especially 
encourage public- and private-sector groups (e.g., universities, 
government laboratories, companies, non-profit groups, user groups) 
with cybersecurity interests to participate. Collaborative, 
multidisciplinary efforts are also highly encouraged. Participants in 
Stage One must be willing to participate in Stage Two should one of 
their ideas be selected. Excluding proprietary information, 
participants must also be willing to have their ideas posted for 
discussion on a public Web site and/or included in our final report.
    How We Will Use It: The best ideas from Stage One will go on to 
Stage Two. Non-proprietary elements of Stage One submissions may be 
posted on our Web site for elaboration and improvement, as a key goal 
of the Leap Year is to engage diverse sectors (e.g., government, 
academia, commercial, international) in identifying multidimensional 
strategies and, where it makes sense, in rolling up their sleeves and 
starting to work. Submissions crafted with that larger community in 
mind will be the most compelling and influential.
    Leap Year interim results and emerging guidance will be posted at: 
http://www.nitrd.gov/leapyear/.
    Questions and submissions should be addressed to:  
[email protected].
    In accordance with FAR 15.202(3), responses to this notice are not 
offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding 
contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated 
with responding to this RFI-3, including any subsequent requests for 
proposals.
    All responses must be no more than two pages long (12 pt font, 1'' 
margins) and in this form:
    RFI Name: RFI-3--National Cyber Leap Year.
    Title of Concept
    RFI Focus Area (Morph the gameboard, Change the rules, Raise the 
stakes.)
    Submitter's Contact Information--Name, Organization, Address, 
Telephone number, E-mail address.
    Summary of Who You are--Credentials, group membership.
    Concept--What is the idea? Explain why it would change the game. 
Introducing a good idea alone is not sufficient; you must explain how 
it changes the game.
    Vision--Make us believe in your idea. (What would the world look 
like if this were in place? How would people get it, use it? What makes 
you think this is possible? What needs to happen for this to become 
real? Which parts already exist; which parts need to be invented?)
    Method--What process did you use to formulate and refine your 
concept? What assumptions or dependencies underlie your analysis?
    Dream Team--Who are the people you'd need to have on your team to 
make this real? If you just know disciplines that's okay. If you have 
names, explain what those people do. If your idea is selected for 
further consideration, we will do our best to bring these people 
together for a Stage Two workshop.
    Labeling of Proprietary Information--Clearly label any part of the 
submission designated as proprietary. The proprietary information will 
be restricted to government use only. If the submission is selected for 
Stage Two, we will work with the submitter to determine exactly what 
information warrants proprietary protection and to establish 
appropriate controls for managing, protecting, and negotiating as 
appropriate the relevant intellectual property rights.
    Responses must be submitted via http://www.nitrd.gov/leapyear/ or 
e-mailed to [email protected], and must be received by April 15, 2009. 
Appendix A contains a sample submission and review considerations.

Appendix A--Sample Submission

    Who You Are--http://quieteveningathome.org--We are a 501c3 group 
with 50,000 members dedicated to the preservation of the dinner hour as 
the core of American civilization.
    Game-changing Dimension--Change the rules.
    Concept--Telemarketers are using our resources and time to market 
their products. They can call and interrupt our dinners and use our own 
telephones to reach us. What if we changed the rules to ``don't call 
us, we'll call you?'' Changing this rule changes the game to one where 
we decide which marketers to contact and when, returning control of the 
dinner hour to us.
    Vision--The vision is a national do-not-call register. People 
should be able to go to http://donotcall.gov and register their phone 
number. It would be illegal for telemarketers who have not been given 
permission to call someone. If a telemarketer makes an illegal call, 
the recipient should be able to report them to a government agency and 
they should be fined. The technology to do this is easy, we are not 
sure about the laws and policies. Courts have ruled differently on this 
issue at different times. We think the political climate is friendly 
today for Federal legislation.
    Method--We announced our search for ideas on our website and 
submissions were made there. We also publicized through restaurant and 
catering associations with whom we often partner, who offered 
interruption-free free meals for brainstorming sessions. Participation 
was not limited to members, but could not be anonymous, since it was 
our intention to follow up with submitters. The Board of Directors of 
QEAH enlisted the aid of Prandia University to work with the submitters 
of the best ideas to develop them into even better ideas. The Board

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ensured all the aspects described in the Leap Year RFI were addressed 
in our final submissions.
    Dream Team--Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications 
Commission, constitutional lawyer, Telemarketers' Association, 
Consumers Union, Oracle or other database company.

Review Considerations

    Submissions will be reviewed by the NITRD Senior Steering Group for 
Cybersecurity using the following considerations:
    Would it change the game?
    How clear is the way forward?
    What heights are the hurdles that may be found in the way forward?
    Submitted by the National Science Foundation for the National 
Coordination Office (NCO) for Networking and Information Technology 
Research and Development (NITRD) on February 25, 2009.

    Dated: February 25, 2009.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. E9-4321 Filed 2-27-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P