DARPA Is Paying Techies To Think Like Terrorists

Scientific American: Pentagon Paying Techies to Think Like Terrorists

DARPA’s new “Improv” program encourages hackers to weaponize common gadgets to help anticipate the next big threats.

To stop a terrorist, it helps to think like one. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is channeling that philosophy with its new Improv program that encourages engineers, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts to imagine how someone might repurpose commercially available devices as weapons. The Pentagon is even offering to fund the process so that some inventors can turn their ideas for hacked cell phones, model rocket motors, drones and other gadgets into prototypes.

DARPA wants to assemble the world’s biggest “red team”—a group of outsiders that can help the Department of Defense get ahead of terrorists looking to attack military personnel, equipment or operations. DARPA will evaluate proposals it receives as part of Improv and within the next month dole out up to $40,000 per proposal to help the proposers study the feasibility of their idea. Once the feasibility studies are completed, DARPA will award another $70,000 to each project it wants to see developed into a basic working prototype that the U.S. military can evaluate. The winners will have three months to build these prototypes and could win up to an additional $20,000 for their efforts.

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