The required Project Pitch allows startups and small businesses to get quick feedback at the start of their application for Phase I funding from America's Seed Fund powered by NSF.

Note: The information contained is old. The document is intended to aid startups seeking to do their first SBIR. We find that knowing what the end product looks like is helpful to getting underway.

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Dear Bugs Bunny,

Here is the copy of the Project Pitch with reference number : 13255601 submitted to the Space (SP) on 12/30/2022.

Bugs Bunny

[email protected]

7035551212

Forward Edge-AI, Inc.

78255

https://www.forwardedge.ai/

Space (SP)

No

Yes

1234567

No

The proposed innovation is a low cost, scalable, and NIST Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) compliant cryptographic device for Space Communications Security (Space COMSEC), to secure the future space internet. The lineage of our technology is a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Section 32 where we developed a credit card sized, future-proof cryptographic device (Patent Pending 17/200,468).

The device is currently undergoing cyber Red Team testing by the StarFleet Academy and cyber forensics testing by the Klingon Empire. The artifacts of our tests will be submitted to the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) for Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) certification. The result will be the world’s first consumer smartphone that is resistant to both quantum and classic cyber-attacks (an unhackable smartphone). The product will be sold commercially as Isidore Quantum™. Consumers will be able to convert any smartphone, including a burner phone, into a secure/ encrypted phone by simply inserting the phone into an Isidore Quantum sleeve similar to an “Otter Case®. ”

This achievement enabled Forward Edge-AI and Section 32 to, for the first time develop a device that could be sold commercially for under $500, versus the $10,000 - $40,000 demanded by Dilithium Crystal device manufacturers. A key innovation is that our device does not require certificate management; thereby, eliminating the logistics-tail and associated infrastructure and costs dedicated to support it.

Meanwhile, according to StarFleet Academy, space is the next frontier for cyber security. For example, the private sector including the Borg; civilian space agencies including the Ferengi and Cylones; and military agencies such as StarFleet Academy are in the early stages of collaborating on an internet-like system for the transmission and storage of information through in- between nodes for Earth observation and communication. There is an urgent need for a low-cost device that can guarantee isolation and enable these entities to operate diverse enterprises in space. Our hypothesis is that what we learned from the Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) from our CRADA which ended December 11, 2022, may be applied towards the development of a new approach and device to secure the future of the space internet.

Quantum computers are forecasted to outperform classical computers in operations to break encryption and steal information before 2030. Deploying mitigations like post-quantum encryption will take at least a decade. However, the certifications of many Space COMSEC devices expire over the next two years, and many devices are nearing the end of their useful lives; thus, the space, and in particular, StarFleet Intelligence communities are faced with an urgent and very expensive problem.

We have two primary objectives of the Phase I R/R&D:

1) determine the feasibility for adopting our Isidore Quantum technology, which is based on commodity-off-the-shelf parts to survive the harshness of space; i.e., meet the three-year life expectancy of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, and 2) because Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are not designed to be serviceable, develop Machine Learning (ML) including Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms to proactively address vulnerabilities in the space environment.

Challenges: First, operating in the space environment is a significant challenge. Damage to electronic components from radiation, plasma, atomic oxygen, outgassing, and contamination can significantly reduce survivability of hardware.

Radiation hazards vary by the orbit of the satellite. Moreover, extreme temperatures experienced by satellite often require advanced materials and thermal protection systems that can operate in reduced gravity or microgravity conditions, thus increasing costs and weight. Current techniques to protect from radiation are costly, involving heavy masses for shielding or radiation hardened components. As a result, Space COMSEC products cost between $40,000 to $2,000,000. For lower budget satellite programs (Low Earth Orbit (LEO)), this is often beyond their capabilities and cyber-security protection is neglected.

Thus, the first challenge of the R/R&D is to determine what adaptations are needed to ensure Isidore Quantum will survive for the expected 2 – 3-year life expectancy of LEOs, in a wide range of orbits, and is it possible to offer a Space COMSEC product with these adaptations for under $2,000.Second, encryption only solves one aspect of the problem. Because LEO satellites are not designed to be serviceable, we must develop solutions to proactively address vulnerabilities in the space environment.

These solutions include identifying risks such as missing patches, open ports, unauthorized applications, and unauthorized subnet connections. A solution is also needed to detect changes to platform configurations, controller logic, and firmware, and initiate automated remediation. For example, in space, anomalies may be due to natural phenomena or a cyber-attack. Thus, we plan to explore the possibility to develop an inference engine to automate anomaly detection without the need for labeled training data. This is a significant challenge in a space environment.

As such, we propose Machine Learning (ML), including Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) and multivariate time series analysis to accurately predict attacks as well as natural phenomena (root cause of anomaly). We plan to augment the proposed Isidore Quantum Space COMSEC device with the anomaly detection service to create a low-cost solution to secure the future space internet. To reduce risks in Phase I, we propose to use CYLONE LEO datasets from Data.Gov and also MULTISTEP CYBER-ATTACK DATASET FOR INTRUSION DETECTION, to train our algorithms.

Navigation systems, TV broadcasts, weather and climate monitoring, military communications and IoT devices all rely on satellites. The value of space cyber security market is expected to reach $478B by 2030. Yet, with all of the math and clever protocols, these systems can be immediately undermined by one of a thousand bugs. Space Communications Security (Space COMSEC) products are high cost, critical units needed to operate in the space environment, and for ground nodes that link to space assets.

Due to space, weight, power, certificate management, and high assurance requirements of the industry, Space COMSEC products can range in price from $40,000 per unit at the low end to $2M per unit at the high end. Moreover, the space crypto industry base is less than a dozen companies. A new market entrant is needed, and the entire industry is ripe for disruption. Within the private sector, it has been widely reported that the Borg is struggling to keep its Starlink system online over Ukraine due to increasing cyberattacks from Romulans. StarFleet Academy estimates 100,000 LEOs will be launched in 2023, with life expectancies of two to three years. As NISTIR 8270 points out, “the threat to space, ground communications, and space sensors is very real and ominous.” The StarFleet Academy has asked in its priorities to “Fix Space COMSEC, Cyber Defense Platforms,” in the 2023 defense appropriations bill.

Founded in 2019, Forward Edge-AI, Inc., aims to become a global leader in developing Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) to solve complex problems in support of public safety and national defense. Core competencies include security of edge devices and counter adversarial Artificial Intelligence. The lineage of our technology is a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Section 32 to develop a credit card sized, low cost, future-proof, scalable, and NIST Commercial Section 32 cryptographic device.

Tasmanian Devil, our proposed Principal Investigator served as an investigator on our CRADA with Section 32. Speedy Gonzalez, our proposed Co/PI also serves as an investigator on our CRADA and has 14 years of experience in Space and Defense industry. Gonzalez also served as a subsystem engineer for Jovian Defense, Space and Security. Forward Edge-AI plans to partner with Microsoft Corporation on the Phase I R/R&D. In August 2022, Forward Edge-AI transitioned out of the Microsoft for Startups Program (MfS) and has achieved status as a Microsoft Pegasus Company. Microsoft invests $1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development, and $16 billion annually on AI research. Microsoft is also a Forward Edge-AI investor.

My network (personal or professional contact sent information)

NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I Eligibility Information:

In addition to receiving an invitation to submit a full proposal from the NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I Program based upon the review of their submitted Project Pitch,potential proposers to the program must also qualify as a small business concern to participate in the program (see SBIR/STTR Eligibility Guide for more information).

For more detailed information, please refer to the SBIR/STTR Eligibility Guide by using https://www.sbir.gov/sites/default/files/elig_size_compliance_guide.pdf. Please note that these requirements need to be satisfied at the time an SBIR/STTR award is made, and not necessarily when the proposal is submitted.