Communications of the ACM
Uncrackable Encryption Could Secure More Than Weapons
An encryption concept called Intrinsic Use Control uses a nuclear weapons fluctuating radiation fields to create use control numbers, and would be able to protect the weapon and its components from unauthorized use.
Credit: Julie Russell and Bob Sickles/LLNL
A scientist and engineer working on a novel approach to encrypting nuclear weapons for more than a decade says the concept also has the potential to offer unprecedented security in areas such as communications and the information technology supply chain.
Intrinsic Use Control (IUC) uses the fluctuating radiation fields of a nuclear weapon to create a complex identification code for its components, notes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Mark Hart. He says the coding can lock down the components with an almost unknowable key if they are tampered with.
Hart also notes the code is randomly generated by its unique nuclear source and is not known by any person.
The premium standard of random number generators is using the random process of nuclear radioactive decay, according to Hart. He says all radiation sources decay, so IUC coding could easily be generated outside the area of nuclear weapons. "You'd have a better chance of winning both Mega Millions and Powerball on the same day than getting control of IUC-protected components," Hart says.
The coding is imprinted on a weapon's components during assembly, with the unique IDs known only to the weapon. He notes any anomaly in the verification process, spurred by attempted removal or replacement of a protected component, deactivates all the components on the weapon, rendering it useless.
From Federal Computer Week
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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