DARPA Launches Project CHARIOT in Bid to Shield Big Tech Profits
DARPA announces a new type of cryptography to protect the Big Tech firm
profits from the dawn of quantum computers and allow backdoor access into 3
trillion internet-connected devices.
by Raul Diego
August 18th, 2020
By Raul Diego
The U.S. Military-Industrial complex is sprinting on a chariot to shore up
the encryption space before the next era of computation upends the entire
digital edifice built on semiconductors and transistors. But, the core of
the effort is protecting markets for Big Tech and all of its tentacles,
which stand to lose years or even decades of profits should the new tech be
rolled out too quickly.
DARPA's newest program seeks to create an encryption technology standard
across the breadth and scope of the Internet of Things (IoT). The
Cryptography for Hyper-scale Architectures in aa Robust Internet Of Things
or Project CHARIOT "will prototype low-cost, low-footprint, post-quantum
cryptographic techniques with minimal energy use for devices in an IoT" on
the 5G network, according to the Pentagon's boutique agency's SBO.
Consumer-side IoT, like smart home devices, had seen considerable growth in
2019 and expectations were high for that trend to continue. The disruption
of their supply chains as a result of the outbreak in China hardly slowed
down the $52.76 Billion market with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
between 23 and 27 percent. The biggest beneficiaries of the COVID-19
economic reset, however, would turn out to be the telemedicine and medical
hardware industry in general, which alone will be worth $332 billion by
2025.
The projected worth of the global IoT market in 2026 has been calculated at
roughly $1.3 Trillion and is expected to flood the world with 3 trillion
devices in the next ten years. Hence the "Hyper-scale" in DARPA's project
moniker, which is taking the lead on behalf of the corporations who dominate
this landscape to develop an encryption standard mandated by the NSA.
Microsoft, Cisco Systems and IBM are just a few of the names that top the
list of IoT device and software providers. All three of these companies have
interlocking interests with the federal government that in some cases, go
back decades. Microsoft, in particular, is poised to finally become the U.S.
government's exclusive cloud services provider and has already taken over
State Department communications systems along with Cisco. Cloud computing,
in fact, will change the face of the industry yet again by facilitating
large scale IoT applications and "lifecycle management."
An encryption standard across IoT devices becomes pivotal for the full
spectrum dominance of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space sought by the
U.S., which is currently threatened by China's rising technological star.
These considerations are left out of DARPA's project brief, which instead
presents a different kind of threat: Quantum computers.
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A quantum leap
The official impetus for Project CHARIOT was lifted right off a report
published by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in
2016; itself preceded by a 2015 announcement by the National Security Agency
(NSA) to begin the "transition" into quantum-resistant encryption
algorithms. Every email you send and receive, every password you use and any
transaction you make online relies on public key encryption and the
inevitable advent of quantum computing will render all of that obsolete,
according to the NIST.
NIST's Post-Quantum Crypto (PQC) report studied the impact of quantum
computing algorithms on existing encryption schemes and mirrors many of the
goals and milestones specified by DARPA in Project CHARIOT. Among these is
the 10-year deadline and the need for the development of "revolutionary
security technologies." Dustin Moody, NIST mathematician and PQC co-author,
warned that the U.S. must be "prepared to transition to new algorithms in 10
years" in a presentation at the 2017 Asiacrypt cryptography conference in
Hong Kong.
The NIST, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce led by "King of
Bankruptcy" Wilbur Ross, began the PQC study in 2012 and held its first NIST
PQC workshop three years later and four months before the NSA issued its
directive. At that workshop, Moody introduced a talk by Flemish cryptologist
Bart Preneel, titled "Public Key Cryptography: the next 4 decades." Preneel
introduced the idea of the quantum computer threat to existing encryption
methods and the eventual end of classical cryptography.
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DARPA's CHARIOT program is racing to meet the ever-closing deadline for
developing and deploying a post-quantum cryptography suite that can serve as
a stop gap for what seems to be the inevitable dawn of large-scale quantum
computing. Whether a quantum computer can be built is no longer a matter of
debate. Several experimental quantum computers already exist and the only
question is what the best approach should be.
The vast empires of Tech would be slain right where they stand if quantum
technology were introduced too suddenly and DARPA, which is nothing if not
accommodating to the private sector, is taking the lead on a matter known in
the field of cryptography as Post-Quantum cryptography.
State capitalism
DARPA has requested $1.1 Billion for 70 unclassified projects relating to
cryptography or cybersecurity in its fiscal 2021 Research, Development, Test
& Evaluation (RDT&E) budget, according to Bloomberg Government and while the
agency is perceived as creators of cutting edge technology for the military,
it is more akin to a bank than the Q lab of Bond movie lore most people
imagine it to be.
DARPA uses tax-payer money to fund private sector players in the Defense
industry to develop defense-related technology and ultimately facilitate
their application for commercial purposes. Virtually all DARPA programs
include explicit provisions for the commercial exploitation of discoveries.
In the case of Project CHARIOT, phase III "will be oriented towards
transition and commercialization of the developed security technology.
Specifically, in the commercial space, CHARIOT security technologies have
applications to companies that develop digital entities (e.g., networks,
clouds, devices participating in the IoT, etc.)."
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This is a classic manifestation of a state-run economy paying lip service to
"free markets" while intervening at the structural level to shape and limit
those markets. China, the U.S.' new boogeyman, is accused daily by American
politicians of doing the same and call it communism. But, in the United
States the lines between the private and public sectors have all but
disappeared and the level of integration between the federal government, the
largest American corporations, and Academia is almost symbiotic at this
point.
The next era of computers may already be upon us; its specs stored in an NSA
filing cabinet just waiting for the inventory of the old era to run out.
Many years ago my Dad brought a Chinese engineer to set up his pride and joy
- a Crown sound system - with the newest addition: the first Sony CD player.
It was 1984 and as the man did his work, he said something remarkable. CDs,
he proclaimed, were already obsolete. "They have already put music directly
on a computer chip" he asserted.
