WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amida Technology Solutions, Inc., a DC-based company focused on data management, data security, and information architecture, delivered a series of security-related research papers at the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security and the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society. The first focused on the challenges of semiconductor device authenticity, the second highlighted the security challenges posed by the emergence of gene editing technologies, and the third discussed the obstacles met by civil society organizations (CSOs) that operate in difficult environments.

"National security fundamentally comes down to knowing what questions to ask, where to ask them, how to ask them, and what answers to listen for," explained Peter L. Levin, Amida's co-founder and chief executive officer.  "In these papers we have tried to describe the most salient security challenges of our time – hardware assurance, bio-security, and the protection of civil society – in a way that is accessible to policymakers and actionable for technologists."

Amida's string of publications began with "Enabling Hardware Trojan Detection and Prevention through Emulation," in which Amida Director of Hardware Al Crouch and Cybersecurity Engineer Eve Hunter describe the protection – and potentially the remediation – of semiconductor devices from hardware Trojans and malfeasant design changes. In 2017, Amida was awarded an SBIR contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a proof of concept for their Trojan detection model.

In "The Hope and Challenge of Synthetic Biology,"  MITRE CTO Jay Schnitzer and Levin argue that the development of gene-editing technologies "shift[s] the ethical, commercial, and global security paradigms in ways that are unprecedented in human history." They identify five key policy decisions that must be made to prevent successful attempts by bad actors to "insert malfeasant and irreversible mutations" into the inheritable germlines of human beings.

"Cybersecurity for Civil Society" explores the emerging security and privacy challenges faced by CSOs, particularly those advocating for democracy or human rights in conflict zones or surveillance states. In the paper, Amida Senior Information Security Analyst Pavan Jagalur contends that the security guidance offered by professionals from democratic societies can be ineffective because the tools and frameworks are naïve about, and sometimes disregard, inhospitable environments and cultures. Jagalur offers a three-pronged approach to solving this dilemma, emphasizing the need for much more usable tools and funding criteria that better account for, and value, security.

Amida is a small DC-based open source software and IT services company. Amida's founders, core team, and close advisors are internationally recognized data scientists and highly qualified software engineers. They have extensive experience in data utility, curation, and management and are experts in standards, models, exchange, security, and governance. Amida's clients include Fortune 500 companies, multi-billion-dollar government agencies, and internationally recognized NGOs.

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SOURCE Amida Technology Solutions, Inc.