Encrypted operational data has been sent from one site to a deployed mortar system at another using cryptography designed to withstand attack by future quantum computers, in a demonstration staged at the DVD exhibition, according to Babcock International.
Scenario data collected at one location was encrypted using software from Arqit Quantum and transmitted to Babcock’s Ground Deployed Advanced Mortar System at another, in what the companies describe as a layered encryption network running between a headquarters and a deployed platform in a contested environment.
The exchange was carried out without physical inline encryptors, the boxes that traditionally sit between a radio and the system it serves, which are expensive, heavy, tightly controlled and a recurring obstacle to connecting anything new to a secure network.
Louise Atkinson, chief executive of Babcock’s Land and Mission Systems business, said: “Armed forces need confidence their critical data can be transmitted quickly, reliably and securely, keeping sensitive information protected at all times.”
Paul Feenan, Arqit’s general manager for government and defence, said: “Modern operations require assured secure networks capable of working across multiple communication bearers.”
The demonstration follows a memorandum of understanding between the two companies covering how Babcock’s work in mission systems, systems integration, digital engineering and through-life support might be combined with Arqit’s cryptographic and secure networking technology.
The threat they are addressing is usually described as harvest now, decrypt later. An adversary who intercepts encrypted traffic today and stores it can decrypt it once a sufficiently capable quantum computer exists, which makes the useful life of anything protected by current public key cryptography shorter than its classification period. Governments including Britain’s have been pressing for migration to post-quantum algorithms, with the National Cyber Security Centre setting out timelines for the transition.
