Can blockchain protect U.S. military networks?

Rage Review : The cooperation and investment between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defense and the blockchain startup Galois clearly shows the importance that the US military attaches to blockchain technology. Even in 2016, when blockchain technology has made rapid progress, it still has a prominent position. This cooperation mainly involves formal verification and keyless signature infrastructure, which are both hot technology fields at present. It once again highlights the prominent position of blockchain in data network security.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Although blockchain hype reached new highs in 2016, it is still impossible to ignore the appeal of this technology, and even the US military has begun to pay attention.

The core of blockchain is actually a distributed ledger, and its code can be used to track information dynamics. Under the severe cybersecurity situation and the shadow of nuclear weapons threats, it is understandable that this technology is used to strengthen national defense.

Media reports indicate that the U.S. military is indeed researching the technology, as evidenced by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarding Galois $1.8 million to validate its blockchain solution.

Guardtime Federal and Galois are DARPA contractors, with Galois responsible for validating Guardtime Federal’s Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) solution.

The two companies issued a joint statement:

“Galois is a leader in formal verification technology, which goes beyond simple testing and evaluation to use mathematical algorithms to ensure that a system performs exactly as expected. Verifying Guardtime Federal’s KSI demonstrates the scalability and practicality of formal verification in building trust in important systems.”

“Who says blockchain only has civilian value?”

Galois said that this contract will “motivate the development of formal verification tools and integrity monitoring systems for all blockchain-based systems.”

The company cited data vulnerabilities as one of the potential applications of the technology.

"A major factor in the severity of a vulnerability is the amount of time an attacker has to run before being discovered; this process can take months, during which valuable assets and data information may be compromised. Technologies such as Guardtime's KSI can ensure that attackers do not discover the data trail."

This verification process also "mathematically guarantees the security of the KSI system" regardless of how an attacker attacks the system.

Core U.S. military assets are often attacked, such as the theft of data from the stealth fighter project a few years ago.