Raytheon has received a $3.1 million contract to develop technology for Morphing Network Assets to Restrict Adversarial Reconnaissance (MORPHINATOR), a program that uses cyber maneuvering techniques to thwart potential attackers in high-threat environments.

Cyber maneuver is the technique of dynamically modifying aspects and configurations of networks, hosts and applications in a manner that is undetectable and unpredictable by an adversary but still manageable for network administrators.

"The intent of cyber maneuver is to place computer network defense technology into a proactive state, thereby shifting the advantage away from the attacker," said Jack Donnelly, director of Trusted Network Systems for Raytheon's Network Centric Systems business.

"By constantly changing the characteristics of the networks it resides on, MOPRHINATOR provides a more robust and trusted networking solution."

MORPHINATOR is designed to be used in conjunction with other existing security devices to provide an active defense approach to information assurance.

Raytheon received the contract from the U.S. Army's Communications, Electronics, Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate. Work will be done in Largo, Fla., and Aberdeen, Md.