海角大神

A more connected military means new battlefield glitches, too

With its $52 million initiative to vastly expand connectivity and technology on the front lines, the US Army knows it may also give enemies new digital targets to hack or manipulate. Is it up for the challenge?

 

The US Army is embarking on a potentially decade-long quest to聽prepare聽soldiers聽to operate in the Digital Age.

In a $52 million initiative to create what it's calling the聽, the Army Research Lab plans to redesign everything the soldier wears 鈥� and uses 鈥� so that it connects to the military's vast digital communications networks.

That doesn't just mean coming up with night vision goggles and helmets with sensors and embedded communications. Instead, it means reimagining the聽battlefield聽with smart materials and connectivity in mind.聽

Imagine聽robotic tanks that maneuver themselves across desert terrain, avoiding land mines;聽drones with enough artificial intelligence to carry out strikes without human operators;聽and next-generation uniforms to monitor soldiers' heart rates and hydration levels or provide early warning alarms for chemical attacks.聽

鈥淚f I鈥檓 wearing a uniform that informs me when there is a chemical attack,"聽 says Richard Danzig, the聽former US Navy Secretary, "that's a very valuable attribute.鈥�

But all this expanded connectivity and technology brings a host of risks, too,聽says Mr. Danzig,聽who wrote a paper on this subject for the聽聽called "Surviving on a Diet of Poisoned Fruit: Reducing the National Security Risks of America鈥檚 Cyber Dependencies."聽For one, creating Wi-Fi enabled uniforms and weapons could give America's enemies many new digital targets.聽If malicious hackers can manipulate sensors to fake chemical attacks, he says, "those false signals can be debilitating."

The Army says聽it's well聽aware of the cybersecurity risks聽in a more-connected聽battlefield, and it's building out its聽new platform聽with security in mind.

According to its March 3 notice seeking bids on the Internet of Battlefield Things project, the Army said cybersecurity must be "inherent"聽in the planning.聽Indeed, cybersecurity聽threats in a connected war zone are triple fold. For example, enemies could potentially hack sensors to direct a tank away from their own combatants, command it to self-destruct, or enter bogus data that tricks US forces into thinking the defunct vehicle is operating just fine.聽

Beyond just tampering,聽more software on the front lines also means that the military has to solve the problem of powering the technology that it deploys.

And then there's the issue of connectivity. Will the Army be able to get聽a strong聽enough聽wireless聽signal in the middle of a desert聽or in a remote mountain range?

"Some of the Army's efforts to develop mobile apps for the field failed because the devices couldn't get reliable reception," says聽William Carter, associate director of the technology policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who coauthored a聽聽on using the Internet of Things for war fighting.

"The Army has done a lot of work on systems that can work without a constant internet connection to get around this," he says. "But because they are not linked to the internet they have limited utility."

Cybercriminals have already proven that the growing number of internet-connected consumer devices are rife with technical vulnerabilities.

In one of the biggest attacks on the commercial Internet of Things, hackers took聽advantage of vulnerabilities in聽Wi-Fi enabled security cameras and digital recording devices to create聽a massive bot net聽that took down large swaths of the web on the East Coast of the US for a short time聽last fall.

"If you Google [the] Internet of Things, you only find the attacks on it," says聽Walid Saad, a Virginia Tech electrical and computer engineering professor聽previously聽awarded Army聽research funding聽to help secure the聽connected battlefield.聽"Imagine how much more challenging [it] would be in an actual battlefield where adversaries want to attack the battlefield as opposed to a hacker in a home who just wants to have fun."

But Mr. Carter of CSIS expects the military to begin expanding connectivity聽in areas where聽the stakes aren't as high as in real battlefield conditions. He sees聽the military first expanding the聽Internet of Things into areas of聽supplies and personnel management聽because the back office powers the front lines.聽

"If troops can't get supplied correctly, then they won't be able to fight," Carter notes.