The handling of future electronic attacks will not be addressed with the use of a keyboard, but through virtual reality systems by the soldiers themselves.
This is the ambition of DARPA's Plan X program, which started in 2012 and is expected to begin being used by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Cyber Administration from October 2017.
Basic idea for creating Plan X is to put the soldier «inside» in a virtual version of cyberspace, so that he can from there confront hostile electronic attacks.
According to the director of the Plan X program, Frank Pound, the goal is to eliminate the use of the keyboard and create a system that will allow the average soldier to defend against threats, using technologies that will include intuitive user environments so that the process is simplified.
In statements to the U.S. Forces' Press Service, Pound revealed that the goal is for the system to be created to support more than 300,000 users.
Furthermore, he expressed the belief that the system resulting from Plan X should be installed in “every military unit, in every warship battle information center, and in every tactical operations center».
A basic component of the system is a holographic touch surface, which in its original form could capture Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals.
In its new version the holographic «table» is capable of creating three-dimensional holographic renderings in real time, for which the use of special glasses is not required.
Through these holographic surfaces, members of the United States Armed Forces will be able to create a «visual» description of computer networks, interact with them, and design electronic defenses and counterattacks.
It is noteworthy that DARPA has also experimented with the Oculus Rift virtual reality set, in order to allow military personnel to be placed within cyberspace.
According to Pount, the Oculus Rift can convert electronic attacks into an image, removing unnecessary information and depicting only what is needed for a response action to be executed.
Despite the use of advanced and futuristic technologies, the basic component of Plan X remains the human element. “We want the person to be within the system and give answers to questions that computers usually fail to answer», emphasizes Frank Pount.
According to the creators of Plan X, only humans can perceive and understand the limits of «collateral losses» from the moment that the goal is the destruction of only the opposing networks.
Frank Pound himself describes Plan X as the Google Maps of cyberspace, which could someday find uses in everyday users' lives, breaking away from the limits of military use.
«The idea of a virtual world that you could find yourself inside of could comfortably be “translated” into Internet terms, where the user explores websites or networks, plays games or makes electronic purchases», says Paunt.
After all, as The Verge points out, the transfer of technology that has been developed by DARPA to consumers is not something new. A characteristic example is the digital assistant Siri, which started as a DARPA program before ending up at Apple, which marketed it commercially.
Source: defencenet.gr
