Lockheed Martin First Defense Contractor To Utilize Blockchain Technology

Maryland-based defense contractor Lockheed Martin has entered into an agreement with cyber security company Guardtime Federal in order to incorporate various digital security elements including Guardtime’s blockchain-based infrastructure to improve its systems engineering processes, supply chain management, and software development efforts.

The contracted collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Guardtime Federal comes as a result of around two years of research and tests into the capabilities of data integrity technology, such as immutable distributed ledger technology, as a defense against misrepresentation or falsification of data in sensitive networked systems and weapon embedded cyber-physical systems. The two firms have also looked into the effects of data mismanagement through the development cycle as a whole and for ways to mitigate the challenge.

Virginia-based Guardtime Federal is a leading cyber security supplier which was previously awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract in order to make advancements in blockchain-based integrity monitoring programs and formal verification tools. The undertaking will be based on Guardtime Federal’s Black Lantern appliances and the countrywide disseminated Guardtime Federal Core Blockchain infrastructure, making Lockheed Martin the first defense contractor in the U.S. to publicly announce that they will incorporate blockchain technology into its operations.

To adequately fulfill the requirements of the project, Guardtime Federal created an association made up of small cyber-based businesses each with advanced technological innovations in this field. The three companies are Galois, Trail of Bits, and ForAllSecure. Since the three companies are participants in Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) cyber-related actions, there is great knowledge on the ins and outs of systems vulnerabilities and how to address any weaknesses.

David Hamilton, president of Guardtime Federal, spoke of the consortium saying “Guardtime Federal is excited about collaborating with such a high-quality team for delivering capabilities to Lockheed Martin with whom we share a common vision regarding cyber and software development challenges.”

Guardtime Federal and Lockheed Martin are in the final stages of creating what they refer to as Cyber Aware Systems Engineering. This program is designed to find weaknesses in a system in a quick manner in order for solutions to be found quicker, thus the data has a greater chance of secure storage.

“These new cyber security approaches will enhance data integrity, speed problem discovery, and mitigation, and reduce the volume of regression testing, which results in reduced schedule risk.The faster our developers can discover issues, the faster we can deliver,” said Ron Bessire, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Engineering and Technology Vice President.

The cyber security industry is one of many industries that are testing blockchain solutions to meet industry needs. The immutability of a well-developed distributed ledger is the key ingredient of blockchain technology that draws cyber security firms to this new technology in the hope to develop new systems that will prevent harm from the growing global cyber security threat.