Blockchain company Guardtime wins NATO and Estonian Ministry of Defense contract to develop next-generation military cyber defense platform using blockchain

Estonian security software company Guardtime has been awarded a contract by the Estonian Ministry of Defense and NATO to develop next-generation systems using technologies including blockchain to modernize NATO’s Cyber ​​Range defense platform.

The Cyber ​​Range platform is primarily used to conduct cyber defence training exercises, training and testing related activities. The hardware and software simulate computer networks and their data flows, powerful information and communication technology (ICT) systems with a range of unique features.

Located at the Estonian Staff and Signal Battalion’s infrastructure and the NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defence Centre of Excellence, the Estonian Cyber ​​Range can be securely accessed remotely from anywhere around the globe.

“It is possible to conduct cyber attacks and test the resistance of IT systems without making changes to live systems.” - Estonian Ministry of Defense

Cyber ​​warfare is now as central to national security as land, air and naval warfare, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said in November during a visit to NATO's Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Center in Tallinn, which is dedicated to interdisciplinary applied research, consultations, training and exercises in the field of cybersecurity.

At the Warsaw summit last July, NATO decided to strengthen its military presence in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in order to "unequivocally demonstrate NATO's overall posture, the unity, determination and ability of the Allies to respond immediately to acts of aggression."

"The cyber domain has clearly become Estonia's niche capability and an internationally recognized strength. NATO's decision to invest in the development of Cyber ​​Range capabilities also signals trust in Estonia's high level of cyber defense. - Estonian Defense Minister Hannes Hanso"

NATO first used Estonia's national Cyber ​​Range in its annual Cyber Coalition exercise in 2013. This exercise proved that the Cyber ​​Range could meet NATO's exercise needs in the cyber domain. Since then, Allied Command Transformation，ACT ) has been studying the requirements for a NATO Cyber ​​Range in detail and considered the Estonian government's proposal for a Cyber ​​Range that utilized the country's capabilities in early 2016.

Cyber Coalition is one of the largest international cyber defence exercises in the world and the largest cyber defence exercise in NATO. The Cyber ​​Range also includes Locked Shields , organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber ​​Defence Centre of Excellence, Cyber Olympics ​​Olympics, a collaboration between the Estonian Ministry of Defence and the Estonian Academy of Information Technology, and a number of different cyber defence training programmes.

The design of the new Cyber ​​Range will take into account the enhancement of NATO’s cyber, electronic warfare and intelligence, testing, rehearsal and mission refinement capabilities, and promote effective cooperation and collaboration of state-of-the-art tools, techniques and procedures to provide trusted capabilities and options to the Red and Blue Teams responsible for designing activities within the NATO Cyber ​​Range users.

“We will provide a flexible, operationally relevant and representative environment designed to integrate simulation, training and collaboration across a wide range of red and blue team cyber mission rehearsal domains, enabling NATO Cyber ​​Range users to safely collaborate and hone their tools and tactics.” - Martin Ruubel, President, Guardtime

Guardtime was founded in Tallinn, Estonia in 2007. The company is dedicated to developing blockchain-based solutions covering defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, and physical supply chains. Estonian Defense Minister Hannes Hanso called Guardtime "one of the most innovative and successful international cyber defense and technology companies in Estonia."

Jay Maynard, head of Cyber ​​Range operations at Guardtime, recently revealed that their collaboration with the Estonian Ministry of Defense and NATO will “bring about real change in how NATO prepares for complex cyber threat situations.”

Guardtime began cooperating with the Estonian Ministry of Defense in November 2015, after which the company signed a memorandum of cooperation to provide four scholarships for master's students studying cyber defense.

Guardtime CEO Mike Gault

Guardtime first became known as a blockchain solutions provider in March 2016, when the company was working with the Estonian e-health government agency. Guardtime CEO Mike Gault noted:

"Estonian President Toomas Hendrik IIves has repeatedly pointed out that the biggest threat in the cyber space is the integrity, especially the integrity of patients' medical records."

Electronic patient medical records are a major component of Estonian government services. Guardtime’s blockchain technology was specifically designed to create an audit trail that is immutable and can be used in court, with no possibility of altering or hiding the information.

Guardtime’s healthcare blockchain aims to improve transparency, auditability, security and governance in the lifecycle management of Estonia’s patient medical records (over a million people). By using a common blockchain to ensure data integrity, Guardtime provides Estonia with a healthcare platform that is immutable and has “real-time visibility.”

Identity and record keeping are also projects Guardtime is working on. In an interview, Gault said that blockchain may "bring a degree of democracy and objective truth to the digital world that even the real world cannot match. The future promised by blockchain is a world where no one has absolute power and no one can lie about their past or present."