Summer Myatt
High assurance crypto modernization is a top trend influencing the defense sector as United States military leaders and federal agencies work to combat increasing threats to critical systems.
Executive Mosaic spoke with General Dynamics Mission Systems President Chris Brady, a 2023 Wash100 Award winner, to find out what specific threats we’re facing and what we can do to protect against them.
“There are several dimensions of crypto modernization, and we’re really working hard on all of them,” Brady said in a new video interview. The first dimension Brady described centers around quantum resistant algorithms.
“We have to implement protections in our encryption that stay far ahead the abilities of quantum computers to try to break any of that encryption,” he explained.
Another element of crypto modernization is software reprogrammability, which Brady said is increasingly important in today’s rapidly changing threat landscape.
“We can’t afford to wait to put a whole new set of hardware solutions out into the field to stay current against all of the evolving threats. The ability to do software and get it out to the field rapidly is critical,” said Brady.
Additionally, Brady noted that modularity should be prioritized across all elements of crypto modernization.
“On top of all of this, there has to be increased modularity to how we implement crypto across the enterprise. When I say modularity, that goes all the way from large data centers running hundreds and hundreds of gigabits per second, all the way down to the tactical edge where you might want a handheld small encryptor and everything in between,” he said.
Hear more insights from the GDMS president — watch Chris Brady’s full video interview here.
