Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday the launch of a research consortium with three universities aimed at providing new tools and methods for countering cyber threats. The defense and intelligence community contractor will be working on research projects with Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Carnegie Mellon University's Cybersecurity Education and Research Center.

Northrop Grumman's Robert Brammer said his firm is spending "millions of dollars" on the five-year project with the three universities but would not give a specific figure on the company's investment. He said the consortium will combine "outstanding people and the flexibility and visionary style of leading research universities." The initiative, which will likely go beyond the initial five years, will involve 10 projects at the three universities along with complimentary research at Northrop Grumman, Brammer said. Purdue University's Eugene Spafford noted that the projects are aimed at looking ahead to future threats and problems instead of being reactive, which is what usually occurs today, he added.

The specific projects being tackled by the consortium play to each university's strengths. For example, MIT will have three projects including one that aims to make computers better able to identify right and wrong commands so they can identify when they are being asked to perform a malicious function. The three projects at Carnegie Mellon will focus on protection of critical infrastructure. And the four projects being tackled at Purdue will include work on building computer systems that make it easier to identify when a cyber attack has occurred. Brammer said he believes the research will provide his firm with a competitive advantage, but added that any intellectual property that each institution develops on its own will remain theirs while intellectual property developed collaboratively will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.