Mission

The DHS Science and Technology Directorate established the Cyber Security Division (CSD), within the Directorate's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), in fiscal year 2011 in response to the increasing importance of the cybersecurity mission.

CSD’s mission is to contribute to enhancing the security and resilience of the Nation’s critical information infrastructure and the Internet by (1) driving security improvements to address critical weaknesses, (2) discovering new solutions for emerging cybersecurity threats, and (3) delivering new, tested technologies to defend against cybersecurity threats.

Objectives

The Cyber Security Division’s objectives are to:

• Develop and transition new technologies, tools, and techniques to protect and secure systems, networks, infrastructure, and users, improving the foundational elements of our nation’s critical infrastructure and the world’s information infrastructure; and,
• Provide coordination and research and development (R&D) leadership across federal, state, and municipal government; international partners; the private sector; and academia to improve cybersecurity research infrastructure. 

Leadership

Dr. Douglas Maughan is the Director of the S&T Directorate's Cyber Security Division.

Organization

CSD's work serves a wide range of customers by coordinating and cooperating with partners within the Department and at other federal agencies; state and municipal administrations and first responders; private sector companies in a wide range of industries; Internet security researchers around the world; and universities and national laboratories. CSD works to create partnerships between government and private industry, the venture capital community and the research community.

To accomplish its mission and serve its customers, CSD has organized its work into five major program areas:

• Research Infrastructure to Support Cybersecurity (RISC) — provides a national and international-level research infrastructure to enable the cybersecurity research community to discover, test, and analyze state of-the-art tools, technologies, and software in a scientifically rigorous and ethical manner.
• Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure (TCI) — focuses on ensuring that the nation's critical infrastructure – such as the oil and gas pipelines, information infrastructure, and the Internet – become more secure and less vulnerable to malicious and natural events.
• Foundational Elements of Cyber Systems (FECS) — focuses R&D activities on the characteristics that are essential to the desired end-states of trustworthy cyber systems and accelerates the transition of new cybersecurity technologies into commercial products and services.
• Cybersecurity User Protection and Education (CUPE) — focuses R&D activities on developing ways to help all types of users – from improving the security and protection of user online activity, to attracting the next generation of cybersecurity warriors, to providing the tools needed for investigating cyber criminal and terrorist activity.
• Cybersecurity Technology Evaluation and Transition (CTET) — provides a coordinated process of assessments, evaluations, and operational experiments and pilots to transition the fruits of research into practice.

Contact

Email questions and comments to sandt-cyber-liaison@hq.dhs.gov