NATO trials 'anti-quantum' encryption in 5G exercise

A UH-60 Blackhawk flies over the runway during a series of 5G avionics tests at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, March 2, 2022

5G networks are critical, and 'fully secure' is even more important

To that end, NATO officials held an exercise at a test site in Latvia earlier this month. The exercise, called "2023 Next Generation Communications Network Technologies", was co-organized by NATO's Allied Command Transformation and the Latvian Ministry of Defence to demonstrate systems capable of supporting multidomain operations: a term that refers to the seamless coordination of land, air, sea, space and cyberspace assets in military operations.

Last November, NATO, the Latvian Ministry of Defence and the Latvian Armed Forces' Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group organized a five-day initial operational test in the country. During the event, augmented and virtual reality software was combined with 5G mobile communications technology to optimize the way operators acquire technical skills, such as driving military vehicles remotely and receiving assistance from hundreds of kilometers away.

The growing use of 5G in civilian operations is driving its further adoption in the military and highlighting the key advantages it can offer the armed forces; these include bringing higher-speed connectivity to the battlefield compared to 4G, thus providing soldiers with actionable intelligence while also minimizing vulnerabilities with lower latency.

For some time now, military leaders have been emphasizing the urgent need for countries to invest in this technology to avoid falling behind globally.

By 2030, the goal of the NATO Digital Transformation Program is to enable NATO to execute and transition to multi-domain missions, ensure interoperability across all services, improve situational awareness, and facilitate data-driven decision-making.

"The U.S. needs to invest in military modernization to deter the world, as well as become a big player in the 5G wireless network industry," General Laura Richardson, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, told a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., this past August 4.

"It's absolutely critical that military allies utilize 5G networks to share information with each other, but it's even more important to rely on a fully secure network."

NATO is deploying a quantum security ecology

According to a press release provided by the organizers, one of the areas of focus is for demonstrators to show how virtual reality technology, secure post-quantum encryption and sensor fusion can be used to improve command and control capabilities.

For some time now, scientists have been warning of the threat that quantum computers pose to cracking common encryption algorithms that protect military hardware and intelligence operations.

This sense of urgency has given rise to the term "quantum-resistant encryption" (quantum-resistant encryption) to describe the next generation of security mechanisms.

Last September, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) released quantum-resistant algorithm requirements for future national security systems. Considering the continued pursuit of quantum computing by international actors, the report calls on industry to "plan, prepare and budget for the transition now."

NATO governments have also begun testing post-quantum solutions, and in 2022, the NATO Cybersecurity Center, which is responsible for the day-to-day protection of the alliance's networks, successfully tested secure transport streams using a virtual private network (VPN) supplied by the UK-based company Post-Quantum.

VPNs can secure communications by utilizing different algorithms provided by the manufacturer to ensure that only appropriate recipients of the data can read it. The project is funded by the Allied Command Transformation's VISTA (Versatile Innovation through Science and Technology Applications) framework, which aims to leverage knowledge and research from NATO businesses, nations, academia and industry to enable science and technology to accelerate warfare.

"More than a decade of intensive research and development means that we are capable of designing real-world quantum security solutions, and this NATO program is an important milestone in the world's migration to a quantum security ecosystem."

Another method tried by the allies is quantum key distribution, which involves exchanging encryption keys, known only between the sharing parties, that can be used to encrypt or decrypt further communications.

According to a related NATO report, a notable feature of this method is that it "allows only the intended recipient to decode the transmitted information, making any eavesdropping impossible."

In 2022, a NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project is using this method to connect Malta and Italy for the first time via a submarine fiber-optic cable in a prototype secure quantum communications undersea link.

Part of the quantum key distribution installation at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic.

[5]https://www.ncia.nato.int/about-us/newsroom/nato-cyber-security-centre-experiments-with-secure-network-capable-of-withstanding-attack-by-quantum-computers.html