16:50 GMT, January 14, 2010 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. | Raytheon BBN Technologies has been awarded a $2.9 million contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop new approaches to better protect Department of Defense Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) against malicious attacks.

Raytheon BBN Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN).

SOAs help developers build reliable new applications faster and at lower costs because they can incorporate previously developed software components but apply them in innovative ways.

Military information systems are increasingly based on SOAs and are called upon to support complex tasks and missions. The advanced security features that Raytheon BBN Technologies will develop under the Advanced Protected Services (APS) program will handle the multifaceted and dynamic information exchange demanded by network-centric operations more quickly and cost effectively.

The goal of the APS program is to enable future military service-oriented information systems to detect, protect and adapt to survive attacks from motivated, well-resourced and determined enemies.

"Defense against malicious adversaries is an inherently difficult problem. An adversary needs to find only one flaw to exploit, but the defense needs to identify and address as many as possible," said Partha Pal, APS principal investigator, Raytheon BBN Technologies.

"Cyberattackers are constantly advancing and adapting and, as a leader in network and information security, we are committed to ensuring the safety of our government's sensitive information and network assets," said Tad Elmer, president, Raytheon BBN Technologies. "This work will help our nation's military networks defend against the rapidly evolving variations of network and information attacks."