The U.S. military needs new messaging technology that’s ultra-secure and self-destructs. Sound familiar?
(FOX)- Think SnapChat. That’s an important part of what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is aiming to do via a request for proposalsposted on a DOD Web page. In Phase III of the project, DARPA says it requires “a secure messaging system that can provide… one time eyes only messages,” among a host of other features. Similarly, SnapChat allows a message to be viewed for a short length of time (1 to 10 seconds) before it becomes inaccessible, the primary reason it has become such a popular messaging platform.
Beyond this, the larger objective for the military is to meet a “critical DoD need to develop a secure messaging and transaction platform.” The DARPA request for proposals is aimed at building a messaging platform that the military could use for secure communication ranging from procurement to intelligence.
To prevent cyberattacks and build a more secure platform, DARPA is eyeing a messaging service that not only taps standard encryption used by other secure messaging services like WhatsApp but also communicates via a decentralized protocol like blockchain. The latter is one of the main features of Bitcoin and acts as a public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions.
Security experts say that blockchain could provide big benefits to the U.S. military.
Kevin Shahbazi, CEO of cloud-based security specialist LogMeOnce told FoxNews.com that because messages and transactions are distributed and not kept in one central location, hacking is very difficult and is detected immediately, making blockchain transparent and more trustworthy. “This is a fantastic move, and will pave the road for many entrepreneurs to roll up sleeves and start contributing to this sector,” he said, via email. “DARPA’s task is significant, and it will help the market overall.”