Blockchain Solution Needed for Coping with Military Challenge

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As military forces increase the use of emerging tech in their operations, the number of data flow increases as well. The US army wants to ensure that the flow of data through terrestrial and satellite networks is trustworthy, and blockchain technology may be the key to an innovative solution.

The use of blockchain technology is becoming more widespread in security and military applications. Blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that can be programmed to record everything of value in order to help exchange various values in a transparent, conflict-free way while avoiding the services of a middleman, and with no need for a central authority to approve transactions.

Militaries worldwide wants to leverage the super secure nature of blockchain technology in its communications. In 2016, NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) hosted the 2016 Innovation Challenge requesting solutions such as military-grade blockchain applications. The organization called for blockchain applications regarding military logistics, procurement, and finance as well as “other applications of interest to the military”.

Now the US Army’s Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD) is looking to blockchain to check breaches and cybersecurity issues in communications data. The solution has to include a machine learning-based service that tracks and blocks malicious structured and unstructured messages. It would track messages through the network from producer to consumer and will be able to automatically detect message modification.

Machine learning and blockchain will be used in processes like user authentication and sharing trust information. The plan is to have blockchain consensus algorithms suited for disconnected, intermittent, and limited bandwidth environments, according to sociable.co. The authentication service will leverage machine learning, user/system data, and network threat history and status to develop trust measures for each user within a system or network.

As the request for information elaborates,“this authentication service should enable tracking of user trust values within the blockchain while allowing dynamic removal or addition of users to the blockchain during its lifecycle.”

The development will deliver real-time and quantitative analytics upon the receipt of messages or data, while leveraging ML-based techniques on historical data.

“In the coming years, the defense research community is expected to search for new applications for the military based on blockchain technology with predominant candidate areas such as cyber defense, secure messaging, resilient communications, logistics support and the networking of the defense Internet of Things,” evaluates eda.europa.eu.