GARLAND and AUSTIN, Texas, May 27, 2009 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has partnered with The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Information Assurance and Security (CIAS) on research for new and innovative cybersecurity solutions.

Cybersecurity is one of the major national security problems facing the United States, and President Obama has made protecting the country's digital infrastructure a top priority for his administration.

"It is impossible to defend against every conceivable threat without the great innovations of academia," said Dr. J Smart, chief technology director for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business. "By partnering with The University of Texas at Austin, Raytheon will tap into some of the best and brightest minds to help design security capabilities for business and government customers and develop new technologies to protect against high-target threats."

Raytheon will provide funding during the next 10 years for CIAS faculty working on computer security and information assurance projects.

The 21 faculty members in CIAS, a research unit in the university's Department of Computer Science, bring significant technical knowledge specific to cybersecurity. They are addressing increasingly critical issues such as privacy, password cracking, network security, intrusion detection, verification and wireless networking.

"Protecting our nation's computing systems that control critical cyber infrastructure is crucial," says Dr. Fred Chang, lead investigator and director of the CIAS. "The partnership with Raytheon will allow us to expand our capabilities to address the rapidly changing problems in cybersecurity with a great deal of agility and flexibility."

Raytheon has more than 30 years' experience in cybersecurity, information operations and information assurance. From vulnerability assessments to information assurance, monitoring and traffic analysis to information operations, Raytheon's integrated cybersecurity solutions safeguard mission-critical systems against the widest range of internal and external threats. Raytheon's end-to-end offensive and defensive solutions constantly monitor and protect against breach, fraud, theft and sabotage.

Raytheon Company, with 2008 sales of $23.2 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 87 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 73,000 people worldwide.

The Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest and most diverse top-10 computer science departments in the United States. It has more than 900 undergraduate majors, 250 graduate students and 52 faculty members and is credited with a strategic economic impact of $8.7 billion per year on the technology economy in Texas. Faculty and graduate students are working on pressing problems such as climate change, cancer and disease, genetics and DNA, safer and more fuel-efficient cars, robotics, cybersecurity and national defense.

    Contacts:
    Raytheon                      The University of Texas at Austin
    Keith D. Little               Lee Clippard
    703.608.4230                  512.232.0675
    iismedia@raytheon.com         lclippard@mail.utexas.edu

SOURCE: Raytheon Company

Web site: http://www.raytheon.com/

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