DARPA to host killer “Improv” performances with hacked hardware

Can you turn a Dyson vacuum cleaner into an improvised threat to US troops? DARPA may pay you to find out. (credit: Bethesda Softworks)

In an effort to understand the kinds of improvised weapons, devices, and systems that could be used against US forces in the field today, the Defense Research Projects Agency's Defense Science Office is preparing for an alternative sort of "improv" performance. DARPA is inviting researchers, developers, and hardware-hacking hobbyists to join in, and the goal of the planned jam session is to discover ways that off-the-shelf commercial technology could be modified to be used against the military by its adversaries.

The US military has dealt with a wide range of improvised weapons and tools in the hands of adversaries over the past decade, including cell phone activated improvised explosives, off-the-shelf software used to intercept drone video feeds, and USB drives laden with malware that ran rampant on computer networks in Afghanistan. Today there's growing concern about how commercial and consumer drone and robotics technology, Internet-of-Things devices, and other burgeoning technology could be used to spy on, harass, impede, or even kill members of the military.

IEDs made from artillery shells captured in Baghdad are the last generation of improvised threats. DARPA wants to know what the next is. (credit: US Army)

So today, DARPA officially unveiled Improv—a program that will fund "innovative research proposals for prototype products and systems that have the potential to threaten current military operations, equipment, or personnel and are assembled primarily from commercially available technology," according to the announcement.

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