The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is sponsoring a “Proposers Day” to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of a potential cybersecurity Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), the agency said Tuesday.

The BAA is for the future Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization (RADICS) program. This program is directed to develop innovative technologies for detecting and responding to cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, particularly the parts essential to Defense Department mission effectiveness, the agency announced on the FedBizOpps website.

darpa_logo

The Proposers Day will be held the morning of Dec. 14 at the DARPA Conference Center in Arlington, Va. Although the day is voluntary and does not constitute a solicitation for proposals, it is set to include overview presentation by DARPA personnel, a question and answer session, and a teaming link provided on the registration website to facilitate teaming discussions. The day will also be held at the unclassified level with no fee to attend

DARPA is especially interested in topics relating to early warning of impending attacks, situational awareness, network isolation, and threat characterization in response to a widespread and persistent cyberattack on the power grid and dependent systems.

The agency also identified several potential relevant technologies in the announcement including anomaly detection, planning anf automated reasoning, mapping of conventional and industrial control systems networks, ad hoc network formation, analysis of industrial control systems protocols, and rapid forensic characterization of cyber threats in industrial control system devices.

If a subsequent BAA is released, it will be posted on the FedBizOpps website, DARPA said.

Responses are due by Dec. 4.