PathScan Cybersecurity Technology

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced that another cybersecurity technology has been licensed for commercialization. This is S&T’s fourth technology that has successfully advanced through the Transition to Practice (TTP) program to the commercial market. The PathScan technology, developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory is a network anomaly-detection tool that is being licensed to Ernst & Young LLP (EY).  With this license, EY will bring PathScan to the private sector for the very first time.

In 2012, the TTP program identified PathScan as a promising candidate for transition to the commercial marketplace. By utilizing statistical models to identity network behavior, this technology quickly detects the movement of hackers once they breach the network and allows operational teams to quickly defend important network information. 

Established in 2012 as part of S&T’s Cybersecurity Division, the TTP program looks to transition federally funded cybersecurity technologies from the laboratory to enterprise consumers. The program, led by S&T’s Michael Pozmantier, also seeks to create institutional relationships between the cyber research community, investors, end users, and information technology companies by showcasing the technologies across the country to develop pilot and collaborative opportunities.

Each year the TTP program selects eight promising cyber technologies to incorporate into its 36-month program. S&T introduces these technologies to end users around the country with the goal of transitioning them to investors, developers or manufacturers that can advance them and turn them into commercially viable products.

Now in its third year, TTP has 24 technologies (eight from fiscal year 2013, nine from 2014 and seven from 2015) that are ready for transition to the marketplace. Four of those technologies—Quantum Secured Communication , Hyperion, NeMS, and now Pathscan—have successfully transitioned to the marketplace through commercial licenses. During the next few months, S&T will introduce eight new technologies to TTP’s FY16 class and will start to showcase these technologies within critical infrastructure sectors and to potential investors. 

S&T anticipates that the successful transition of PathScan to the commercial marketplace will open the door to new technology partners and raise the visibility of other worthy technologies developed by the national labs as solutions to complex cybersecurity challenges.