The military branchâs move to update the technology is part of its $283 million Army-Wide Cryptographic Network Standardization program that began in 2012, the Army said June 17.
The updates involve the use of programmable software-based systems instead of âhard-codedâ devices, according to the Army
“So in theory, if the hardware box can survive 30 years without breaking, we would only need to do software upgrades instead of what we’re doing today, which includes totally replacing hardware and software,â said James Hayden, ACNS lead for Communications Security Cryptographic Systems.
The military branch has already removed at least 6,000 legacy cryptographic units as it works to migrate to the latest version of Internet protocol dubbed IPv6.