Dive Brief:
- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is reportedly funding a project to explore whether or not blockchain technology could be used to help secure highly sensitive data, according to Quartz.
- Timothy Booher, the program manager behind the DARPA project, said potential applications of blockchain could include securing nuclear weapons or military satellites.
- Blockchain technology is used for record-keeping in a growing number of industries, including education, banking and financial services.
Dive Insight:
If the Defense Department is looking to implement blockchain, other organizations may quickly follow suit. Blockchain technology helps guarantee that information has a timestamp and recorded whenever any change happens, ensuring data can be trusted in real time. In DARPA’s case, blockchain technology could help track attempted data breaches.
"Whenever weapons are employed … it tends to be a place where data integrity in general is incredibly important," Booher said. "So nuclear command and control, satellite command and control, command and control in general, [information integrity] is very important."
In September, DARPA awarded a $1.8 million contract to computer security firm Galois, asking it to verify a specific type of blockchain technology from a company called Guardtime. If the verification goes well, the military could become one of a growing number of industries and institutions using blockchain to help ensure the security of their operations.
