SpiralGen, Inc. said Thursday it will be developing enhancement measures for cybersecurity operations at the country’s nuclear power plants.
The arrangement comes about through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Small Business Innovative Research Program.
A recent computer virus, Stuxnet, was effective in interfering with centrifuges used in the Iranian nuclear program and prompted the DOE to invest in the improvement of enhanced security against computer viruses and other malware.
“The world cannot afford another Stuxnet. We are confident our solution will have a positive impact in keeping our critical infrastructure safer,” SpiralGen Vice President of Engineering and Principal Project Investigator
Mike Franusich
said.
Within the first phase of development, the company will develop software components for controls and other areas of a reactor that are resistant to this kind of virus infection or other malfunction in order to prove the concept behind the programming. The company plans to combine code generated by their system with manually developed coding so that the software will have a way to detect and rectify errors regardless of where the error originated. The software will also alert workers when this occurs.
