The US Space Force Will Use Blockchain-Based Data Protection - and SpaceX's Reusable Rockets (upi.com) 43
"The service branch protecting U.S. interests outside the stratosphere may use blockchain to render its computer systems, on earth and in space, unhackable," reports CoinDesk:
Last week, Xage Security won a contract from the United States Space Force to develop and roll out a blockchain-based data protection system across its networks. Called the Xage Security Fabric, the blockchain verifies data and protects the network from third party intervention, so confidential data sent from satellites to earth isn't intercepted en-route.
It also ensures security remains consistent across the entire United States Space Force network, preventing hackers and other malicious entities from identifying and exploiting any weak spots.
And UPI reports: The U.S. Space Force will start to fly missions on reused SpaceX rockets next year to save millions of dollars, the service announced Friday.
The Space Force will fly two GPS satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The lower cost that SpaceX charges for reused rockets will save taxpayers $52.7 million, a statement from the military branch said... Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said in a news release that the company was pleased the Space Force saw "the benefits of the technology."
It also ensures security remains consistent across the entire United States Space Force network, preventing hackers and other malicious entities from identifying and exploiting any weak spots.
And UPI reports: The U.S. Space Force will start to fly missions on reused SpaceX rockets next year to save millions of dollars, the service announced Friday.
The Space Force will fly two GPS satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The lower cost that SpaceX charges for reused rockets will save taxpayers $52.7 million, a statement from the military branch said... Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said in a news release that the company was pleased the Space Force saw "the benefits of the technology."
oh geez.. (Score:2)
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[Sept 04, 2020] Today, the Trump administration released its fifth Space Policy Directive, this one designed to come up with a list of best practices for the space industry on how to protect their spacecraft from cyber threats. The goal is to encourage the government and space industry to create their space vehicles with cybersecurity plans in place, incorporating tools like encryption software and other protections when designing, building, and operating their vehicles.
Space Force is just lagging ... (Score:2)
so blockchain is the missing ingredient that makes computers unhackable??! lol, imma go get some of that.
Too late. Venture capital has moved on from "blockchain". Space Force is just lagging behind the times a little.
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I think "blockchain" now means that a hash is computed somewhere.
Basically cryptographic signing? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm confused here. Blockchains are good at validating signed messages, to ensure authenticity. They are not as useful when it comes to encryption, other than perhaps having a way to check the authenticity of a key before using it to encrypt, or ensuring a key is correct before a Diffie-Hellman key exchange... all stuff that SSL/TLS has done for decades.
What is this additional stuff going to add that isn't in common use already? Signed and encrypted objects are not new, nor are having signatures available in a public journal (IT consult has had a PGP digital timestamping service that posted a rolling hash of all its stamps, which is pretty much an effective blockchain for 20+ years.)
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Blockchain is good for some very high latency applications, for example Mars is never less than 3 light minute, and as far as 22 minutes away from earth
'check the root server' systems could fail with that much lag.
Re: Basically cryptographic signing? (Score:4, Insightful)
How? think about it you sign it on mars but you can't sync it to the block chain has mars is to far away. Now. Buy I can do it on mars too except you then have to transmit the block.
Block chain only works where you can transmit the block to multiple computers owned by multiple parties.
If you can't do that or don't do that them it is worthless.
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No -you're confusing a specific implementation of block chain typically used with witnessed transactions, such as cryptocurrencies.
More generally, a block chain is literally a chain of blocks. A subsequent block adds its own data and and then cryptographically signs the whole mess, conventionally a hash. Voila - the entire chain is now trusted to be complete & un-altered - at least without breaking one or more of the crypto signatures.
Bitcoin and its ilk then transmit the *entire damn database* of *al
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That's because it doesn't.
Someone probably decided it would be a good idea to transmit a hash along with the data but that's not buzzwordy enough so they called it blockchain.
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Double the time for round trip and add at least 10% for processing at both ends.
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Besides, who would work on hacking software, when with exposed hardware, is always easiest. Millions upon millions of transistors and I only have to screw over one to win. I would work on ways to transmit energy into a ram or the cpu to alter transistor states from 0 to 1, force something to oscillate and you can transfer energy into it, the more it oscillates the more energy transfer induced and to take a transistor from 0 to 1 takes very little energy, I just need to jam it on in there and that cpu or mem
Blockchains have been hacked (Score:3)
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Lolwut? Mechanical safes can be opened by a strain gage, a raspberry Pi, a small DC motor, a couple transistors, and a fucking toilet plunger head.
They're predictable, automatically solvable puzzles. No destructive entry needed if you sense the gate positions and try the shortlist of combos.
Re:Blockchains have been hacked (Score:4, Interesting)
Ironically the best safes use a Dorma-Kaba X-10 electronic lock, or a S&G 2740B GSA approved lock. Those are quite resistant enough to robotic guessing... good enough to deter most attacks barring just kicking the lock off and busting out the drill templates.
The best security is using old and new technologies. For example, if you have Alice needing to make sure Bob's key is valid, and both are worried about the security of public key cryptography, Bob can send Alice a fingerprint of his key as well as a 64 character pass phrase via registered mail, and then Alice has definite proof that Bob's key is Bob's, and to mitigate RSA being broken, they can use a separate symmetric crypto layer before using PGP/gpg or whatnot.
Similar if one has private keys that need good protection. Nothing wrong with using a stainless steel cryptocurrency wallet for the key or passphrase, storing that in a safe in a physically secure location. Bonus points if the key is split up so m out of n segments are needed to reconstruct it.
One thing I've seen in my years of IT is just complete embracing new technologies without any thought of the impact.
Serious stuff, the US Space Force (Score:2)
More bestest that the Jetsons, Space Invaders or Starship Troopers, because they have the blockchains!
Re: Serious stuff, the US Space Force (Score:2)
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Imagine Space Force veterans, all messed up with office boredom PTSD and pinched vertebral disks because of the tight-fitting spaceman costumes and capes where were forced to wear during their entire career, going "You don't know man! You weren't there!"
Gimmicky technology for a gimmicky "force" (Score:2)
Department created by Trump (Score:2)
Jump onboard a pointless buzzword bandwagon after the rest of the world has already abandoned it for the stupid idea it was. See this: -_- This is my shocked face.
If the US Government didn't have such an impact in the rest of the world it would be a comedy. Unfortunately it's a tragedy.
Startup: Next Gen Quantum Block Chain Firewall (Score:2)
Who is in with me?
We can make Millions of Dollars and if we are keen we don't need to spend 20 yrs. behind bars but can visit many bars.
Re: Startup: Next Gen Quantum Block Chain Firewall (Score:2)
But you' d have to commit to the role, see, complete with the drug or alcohol overdose, the coma, the hooker without a clue, the yacht, the whole nine yards.
you what?? (Score:5, Informative)
Enough with the blockchain crap (Score:2)
Yeah, if you say "blockchain" enough times, investors will give you money.
It doesn't provide encryption. That's the job of -- wait for it -- encryption.
It provides a limited authentication. That means you can link a blockchain to a user, but not know who a user is.
"Blockchain" is a buzzword that solve nothing, unless it's about getting money out of investors' pockets.
It's a tool, and like any other tool, can be used in any number of ways. None of them "solve" technology or money problems.
E
P.S. If you're
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P.S. If you're an "investor" in a blockchain currency... you're not. You're a gambler buying crap worth crap hoping someone will pay you more for it tomorrow. Please, go opine in alt.investments.idiots.
So it's an investment. Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean others don't and just because you want to invest in something you deem more reliable doesn't mean others want to. As long as they have their eyes open and understand they needn't be idiots - just less risk averse.
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Nah, the cryptographic signing (i.e. the encryption) does that part too.
Re: Enough with the blockchain crap (Score:2)
"Yeah, if you say "blockchain" enough times, investors will give you money"
Don't forget "quantum". Then the payout will be big!
Chainmail (Score:2)
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I miss the days when "push technology" appeared out of context in the Wall Street Journal and my PHB wanted it rolled out across the enterprise.
We have to come up with a better name (Score:3)
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Wut? (Score:2)
xkcd (Score:4, Informative)
Re: xkcd (Score:2)
Itâ(TM)s not at all that weâ(TM)re bad at what we do. Itâ(TM)s that the financial pressure of most projects put security and robustness as an afterthought.
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I got my first microcomputer in February of 1978, a Radio Shack TRS-80.
There was a fork called a Mac, but I never went there.
Both are related by the same DNA and no one at that time planned for them to connect to each other.
Evolution kicked in and randomness produced the present-day pile of shit that includes Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
We need to take what we've learned and start building a replacement.
When Security through obscurity isn't enough... (Score:2)
Unhackable (Score:2)
Their first Spaceship will be called Titanic, I presume.
What if Elon Musk Goes Bad? (Score:2)
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What if Elon Musk Goes Bad? The ability to deliver a nuclear warhead should not be privatized.
He's a white male billionaire in a country with an entire political party commanding as much as 54% of the national vote absolutely devoted to the idea that he should only get richer and control more of the world. Why would he go bad? I mean other than possibly suffering from affluenza. But he grew up poor enough that's not much of a risk.
Blockchain makes no sense (Score:2)
There's only one unique thing that Blockchain does, which is to operate a secure network in a distributed manner, with no trusted party in the middle, and the cost of that is that operations cost orders of magnitude more time and money to perform. Everything else that Blockchain does not only been solved, but it's also been solved for decades, vastly more efficiently, on a global scale. Blockchain isn't more secure than the crypto it's based on, and all that crypto be, and is, used to secure communications
Has someone told Space Force ... (Score:2)
Idiots. (Score:3)