University students address series of difficult challenges for Australian Defence through innovation, technology and creativity

How to grapple with data – from space waste, to unwanted hard drives, to documents libraries – was the focus for Hacking for National Security students at the University of Technology, Sydney this past term. Three student teams in the class spent eight weeks devising potential solutions for these issues, all of which have national security implications.

On 9 December 2022, the students presented their ideas during a session for their problem sponsors, as well as university administrators, government officials, and members of the Common Mission Project.

The first team focused on organising the technical documentation held by Defence. They found that, over time, information held in a variety of formats can become difficult to locate and retrieve. This can lead to user frustration and delays. To counter this, the team presented a technological innovation called “Athena the Librarian,” which navigates a technical library through a three-point detection system: bitmap technology, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and a differential evaluation system. These capabilities allow for a computer to read and analyse individual documents, comprehend them, and evaluate them in comparison to other pieces of information, all while maintaining critical security overlays. Athenas’s solution can ensure up to a 99% reduction in duplicate copies and up to 95% in cost reduction on overlapping books.

An observer commented that this solution may have broad applications and expressed his excitement for the capability, saying “My hunch is this extends far beyond defence.”

The second team approached the challenge of ensuring the complete erasure of computer drives known as Zeroisation. The team of two presented a solution to solid state hard drive zeroization with their concept, File Scout, intended to streamline the solid state drive life cycle within Defence, reducing resupply and procurement costs, enhancing security measures, and freeing additional storage space.

Addressing the absolute prioritisation of information security within Defence, the team explained that often hard drives and whole computers are destroyed or put into perpetual storage rather than being reused because of the sensitive nature of their previous contents. The students explained that File Scout, a Linux Application, would allow the user to verify erasure of a drive. The team worked closely with their Defence problem sponsor to understand the problem intimately.

Again, the dual-use opportunities beyond Defence resonated with the audience. One panellist said, “There is a huge market for this with the new regulations around critical infrastructure, with much of what started with Defence and federal areas now filtering down to state and local councils. Especially now with everyone trying to achieve net zero emissions and recycle e-waste, this is just an awesome idea with great usability.”

Challenged with wrangling the escalating issue of space traffic around the solar system, the final team built a program to encourage easy communication within various institutions that govern space data and information. The team introduced their customisable tool, Eclipse, which is integrated into the existing Rocket Chat integration software used by space agencies, the Department of Defence and civilian organisations in space waste management. Eclipse not only allows one to access and build integrations into easy to use publicly available apps like G-suite, Trello and Zoom, but also offers a toolkit and customised AI-enabled chat bot for optimal navigation and quick learning. Eclipse also provides a jargon dictionary of space industry terminology.

The tool is intended for use by space agencies, Defence and civilians.

Background

Hacking for National Security is Australia’s version of a global course started by Stanford University in the United States six years ago as Hacking for Defense – a way to engage university students, who would never previously have considered working on national security problems. The class is now taught at more than 60 universities in the US and the UK as well four in Australia. In Australia, Hacking for National Security is supported by the Next Generation Technologies Fund.