Nearly half of UK businesses—46%—reported cyber-attacks last year, with 56,000 small businesses hit in Greater Manchester alone, costing £175 million. The MOJO project tackles a specific software vulnerability: the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), a core piece of software that runs programs written in Java and Scala. These languages power many big-data frameworks used in data centres—tools like Apache Spark, Kafka, and Elasticsearch. The Arm-developed Morello platform, designed with built-in security features, currently lacks a mature, robust JVM. That gap leaves data centres running Java-based services exposed to attacks. THG, a global e-commerce and hosting company, is leading the project alongside the University of Manchester to build an open-source, security-enhanced JVM for Morello. If successful, the project could reduce the costs and disruption of cyber-attacks on digital businesses, public services, and government systems. A more secure JVM would strengthen the Morello software ecosystem, making future Arm-based data centres harder to breach. The societal benefit is less tangible but real: fewer service outages and security incidents means less disruption to daily life—online shopping, banking, or government portals—that people rarely think about until they stop working.
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Last year, 46% of UK businesses reported cyber-attacks or breaches. Cyber-attacks cost small/nano businesses £175m last year in Greater Manchester alone; 56,000 small businesses were attacked, of which 12,000 were attacked weekly. The MOJO project is motivated by the commitment of THG PLC to have the best possible security protection for its e-commerce and hosting business. This extends to wanting to understand how future Arm platforms, as represented by the Morello System-on-Chip (SoC), could improve the security of its business while contributing directly to the Morello software ecosystem. The project is led by THG, a world leader in the e-commerce sector, where it operates by ensuring that its e-commerce services and data centre hosting provide advanced security technologies. THG's e-commerce platform runs in data centers across the world, and it is under constant attack due to its prominent market position. THG has accumulated wide-ranging cybersecurity experience, and a growing volume of collected data from such attacks. THG is assisted by the University of Manchester (UoM). The team at UoM has unique research expertise on Java Virtual Machines and Arm systems. MOJO will enrich the Arm-developed technology platform (Morello platform and software stack) by developing an open source robust, mature and security-enhanced Java Virtual Machine (JVM). JVMs are of key importance for THG, as well as for most software developers. The Morello ecosystem lacks important software technology for data centres; for example Scala- and Java-based big data frameworks (such as Apache Spark, Flink, Kafka, Elasticsearch, Storm, Cassandra, Giraph, ...) which require a mature and robust JVM. The social and economic benefits of a security improved JVM are directly associated with reducing the potential impact of security breaches and attacks, and the costs required to secure digital businesses and services. The societal impacts are improved public perception to the benefits of technology, and less disruption to the daily activities of individuals in society due to security incidents, and service outages across public, government, and paid for digital services. Demonstrating the enhanced security capabilities in JVMs, strengthens the global and, especially, UK impact to online business, the public and government services and objectives. Finally, the proposed robust and mature JVM will enrich the Morello software ecosystem capable of protecting against future cyber-attacks.
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