Westport-based Cybersecurity Company Lands Federal Government Contract
WESTPORT, CT — Manifest, a Westport-based cybersecurity company, recently landed a new contract with the United States Air Force, this one for $1.8 million with the Air Force Research Laboratory as part of the Small Business Innovation Research program.
Marc Frankel, Manifest’s co-founder and CEO, told Patch in an email that the company’s work for the Air Force will allow the military more quickly fight off certain cyberattacks.
“Our work with the Air Force will focus on ensuring that our nation’s Airmen are able to consume and operationalize software bills of materials (SBOMs), enabling them to respond more quickly to software supply chain attacks by maintaining an inventory of their third party software dependencies,” Frankel said.
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This latest contract was championed by U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4th), who said the company is helping the U.S. stay on the cutting edge of cybersecurity defense at a critical time.
“Manifest’s mission reflects the best of American ingenuity, and earning this [Small Business Innovation Research] contract means that they will have increased capabilities to combat foreign actors seeking to exploit supply chain vulnerabilities,” Himes said in a statement to Patch. “I was happy to support such a strong application from a Connecticut-based company and am thrilled to see them receive this invaluable growth opportunity.”
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According to Frankel, software supply chain attacks cost an estimated $46 billion in 2023, and those costs are projected to nearly triple by 2031.
Manifest aims to help others secure their software through increased transparency by “understanding what’s actually hidden in the software” that an organization buys or builds.
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“Nation-state actors like Russia and China, as well as non-governmental organizations, have increased [attacks] by some 1300 percent over the past three years,” Frankel told Patch. “It’s no longer acceptable from a risk perspective to consume software without tracking what’s in it and where it came from.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order designed to improve national cybersecurity infrastructure “by establishing baseline security standards for the development of software sold to the government,” according to Himes.
Since then, Department of Defense and Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies have begun requiring [software bills of materials] from software vendors so they can evaluate vulnerabilities and risks of cyberattacks in available software products.
“Manifest is honored to have the opportunity through this [Small Business Innovation Research] award to support the United States Air Force’s [software bills of materials] management efforts and to help secure their critical missions,” Frankel said. “We truly appreciate the support of Congressman Himes and his staff in support of our proposal and of cybersecurity and national security issues writ large.”
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