This paper focuses on defining specific scenarios for quantum-safe underwater communication to drive security requirements. The maritime environment in general and the underwater domain in particular have unique constraints and require the use of specialized cryptographic techniques. The two scenarios presented are underwater harbor protection and anti-submarine warfare. Employing post-quantum cryptographic algorithms in these use cases enhances security and maintains the integrity of sensor data. This research contributes to strengthening underwater communication security through advancements in acoustic cryptography, error correction codes, adaptive modulation, and energy-efficient algorithms.

The federated nature of many crucial Internet of Things (IoT) applications introduces several challenges from a security perspective.To address critical challenges related to the authentication and secure communication of IoT devices operating in federated environments, we propose a new authentication and key exchange protocol based on a distributed ledger.Our protocol uses the unique configuration fingerprint of an IoT device and does not require secure storage in participating IoT devices.To validate the correctness of our design, we have performed formal modeling and verification of the security properties, using two different verification tools: Verifpal and the Tamarin prover.

Many high-impact Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, public safety, and military operations, require the establishment of a secure federated IoT environment.One of the critical challenges in the implementation of federated IoT solutions involves establishing a secure and authenticated key management mechanism.We propose and validate in a laboratory environment a novel federated IoT onboarding and key management solution.Our dl-mOT protocol integrates an efficient identity-based modified Okamoto-Tanaka (mOT) protocol with a distributed ledger in order to establish an anchor of trust between federation members.

NATO is developing a new IT infrastructure for automated information sharing between different information security domains and supporting dynamic and flexible enforcement of the need-to-know principle. In this context, the Content-based Protection and Release (CPR) model has been introduced to support the specification and enforcement of NATO access control policies. While the ability to define fine-grained security policies for a large variety of users, resources, and devices is desirable, their definition, maintenance, and enforcement can be difficult, time-consuming, and error prone. In this paper, we give an overview of a tool capable of assisting NATO security personnel in these tasks by automatically solving several policy analysis problems of practical interest. The tool levarages state-of-the-art SMT solvers.

The successful operation of NATO missions requires effective and secure sharing of information among coalition partners and external organizations, while avoiding the disclosure of sensitive information to untrusted users. To resolve the conflict between confidentiality and availability, NATO is developing a new information sharing infrastructure, called Content-based Protection and Release. We describe the architecture of access control in NATO operations, which is designed to be easily built on top of available (service-oriented) infrastructures for identity and access control management. We then present a use case scenario drawn from the NATO Passive Missile Defence system for simulating the consequences of intercepting missile attacks. In the system demonstration, we show how maps annotated with the findings of the system are filtered by the access control module to produce appropriate views for users with different clearances and terminals under given release and protection policies.