Security demands fuel market for encrypted communications.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: Net WARFARE

LONDON -- The rapid expansion of Internet-based communications for military command functions and other security-sensitive operations has sparked concerns about protecting that data from intruders.

The military for years has used exclusive portions of the radio spectrum for communications. Moreover, their systems have had security hardware embedded in them to make interceptions difficult. As a result, secure channels were almost always guaranteed.

But the circumstances are changing as the demands for communications grow, mostly driven by soaring requirements for video and data transmissions.

Companies that can deliver secure high-data rate communications will be taking the lead in the market, says Herve Guillou, president and CEO of defense communications systems at EADS Defense Security Systems Ltd.

In September, he signed a partnership agreement with Cisco Systems Inc.--a supplier of networking technologies--to tackle the challenge of secure military communications. The two companies hope that their expertise in secure voice and video communications and tactical encryption can help them boost their military sales.

The defense and public safety sectors are adopting commercial technology in video, security and global ad-hoc networking, says Brad Boston, senior vice president of global government solutions at Cisco. His company is attempting to improve the real-time connectivity of voice communications.

"The one-size-fits-all model for security and encryption will change," he says. People are realizing that battlefield data is susceptible to threats in the commercial world and that it needs a different method of security. There will be an evolution in several years with some different levels of security applied to various technologies, he says.

The task is made more difficult by the military's desire to become more mobile, and its requirement that communications systems function on the move.

"The whole network-centric infrastructure has to be...