Del Mar, CA, November 25, 2011 –(PR.com)– Critical Assets Labs, a division of Critical Assets, has been awarded the one of the first contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under their new “Cyber Fast Track Program.” DARPA will fund Critical Assets’ “Pin Pad Defender” project. The contract award funds the continued development, fabrication and integration of a functional prototype that will be presented to DARPA and others at the completion of the project. "We’re very excited to be among the first to work with DARPA’s CFT initiative. The program establishes the ability for firms like us to do meaningful research under a federal program, which would otherwise not be possible," said Matt Harrigan, the company’s chief executive. “The truth is that attackers have adapted beyond today’s security products. At Critical Assets, we demand defensive measures that our own white-hat hackers can’t break. And that rules out most of the ‘solutions’ on the market today. Critical Assets Labs is pushing the envelope with new forms of defense. And we are developing novel counteroffensive measures to help deceive, identify and catch cybercriminals. As an industry, we need to be innovating as quickly as the bad guys. And our defensive measures should be raising the cost and risks to being a bad guy.” Harrigan added. Critical Assets is intending to pursue a number of projects with DARPA under Cyber Fast Track, and the company is seeking additional researchers to be part of its CA Labs team. “Security people have historically had to balance their security research with projects that they aren’t emotionally invested in, which is less than ideal for them. The goal of Critical Assets Labs is to partner on programs like CFT to give researchers their utopian job,” said Amy Kohtz of CA Labs. Critical Assets is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.criticalassets.com for more information.