The EPIC project is providing critical privacy and protection of DoD personnel in specialized professions
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (November 14, 2024) - The Defense Innovation Unit issued commercial vendor success memos as part of the Department of Defense’s effort to protect the digital footprints of its personnel and safeguard sensitive information. The recognized prototypes are part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s Enhanced Protection of Information Capabilities (EPIC) project.
Launched in late 2022, in partnership with the U.S. Army, EPIC set out to provide a comprehensive solution for protecting the data of personnel throughout servicemembers’ careers - from onboarding, training, and offboarding personnel. The project is a blend of technical, analytical, and training solutions to address key digital fingerprint security gaps including best-of-breed commercial analytical tools. In total, 46 companies responded to the Area of Interest (AoI) posted on DIU’s website, and five companies received other transaction (OT) prototype awards to provide a holistic digital protection and obfuscation suite for members of the U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Security Command.
Demonstrating speed to solution, EPIC produced an up-and-running management system in under two years. The system received an Authority-to-Operate (ATO) from the DoD, a formal authorization that allows the prototype to continue to function within the mission partner’s digital suite both now and into the future.
Two vendors, Kinetic Data and Grey Market Labs, were selected to address complex data administration, workflow automation, data protection/security, and digital identity management workflow automation challenges at various security levels. They successfully integrated their solutions with existing U.S. Army systems to create a secure, user-friendly, automated experience for secure collaboration, hosting, and executing critical human resource functions. This combined product solution not only enhances the protection of DOD personnel and their identities, but also reduces administrative workload strain for all parties involved in personnel onboarding and managing.
Ridgeline International was selected to quantify and analyze “digital exhaust” at an organization-level. This approach detected threats that could be mitigated through specialized workforce training offered by Ridgeline and a fourth company, Gnosko Associates. Together, both companies successfully piloted and iterated on novel training courses about personal digital signature management to protect against technical surveillance threats and promote discreet communication tactics.
“By levering DIU as a prototyping contract vehicle, U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Security Command was able to successfully identify and implement sustainable and repeatable novel solutions to unique technical problems posing serious threat to our global posture and operations,” said a mission partner from the U.S. Army.
These success memos not only capture the work accomplished via this OT Prototype, but also enables entities from across the DoD to execute follow-on contracts of varying types and authorities, streamlining the DoD’s ability to work with Kinetic Data, Grey Market Labs, Ridgeline International, and Gnosko Associates on like capability gaps/problems as outlined in DIU’s EPIC AoI.