Department of National Defence Awards Contract to Solana Networks for Development of Intrusion Detection System using Homomorphic Encryption

Solana Networks, an industry leader in cyber security monitoring solutions, has been awarded a Phase 2 contract to deliver a prototype Intrusion Detection System (IDS) based on Homomorphic Encryption (HE). The initial proof-of-concept (POC) solution delivered during Phase 1 was completed in November 2021.

The Phase 2 contract will advance the POC to a prototype supporting higher throughput rates over the course of the two-year project.

In collaboration with Carleton University, the project aims to develop an Intrusion Detection System which can be securely deployed in third party networks while ensuring that its rules and the outcome of the rule-vs-network traffic matching process are kept confidential from observers with access to the IDS.

Central to the IDS architecture is the utilization of Homomorphic Encryption, serving as its foundational element. This technique facilitates operations on encrypted data without necessitating interim decryption. Consequently, the end result remains encrypted, rendering it impenetrable to adversaries with access to the actual machine instructions being executed.

Phase 1 of the project developed and implemented a HE-based IDS system which supported a subset of well-known Suricata IDS rules. In Phase 2, the focus will shift towards optimizing the system's performance to accommodate elevated rates of network traffic.