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Anti-Tamper provides the LAST LINE OF DEFENSE.


Our country’s investment in advanced warfighting technologies is subjected daily to exploitation as a result of battlefield losses, theft, or abandonment.  Anti-Tamper technologies provide the last line of defense protecting our nation’s capabilities.
Anti-Tamper also ensures the safety of our warriors and citizens, and those of our coalition partners, by providing U.S. battlespace advantage and military preeminence to fight and win our nation’s wars.  
 

Why Anti Tamper?


Anti-Tamper is the final line of defense in protecting capability elements when positive control of a U.S. Weapon System is lost due to battlespace losses, legal or illegal export to foreign government, or abandonment.  Anti-Tamper protects U.S. weapon system capability elements and acts as a key contributor toward a complete, holistic program protection implementation by deterring, preventing, delaying, and reacting to exploitation of technology advantage elements (TAE). Anti-Tamper’s unique protection capability maintains and advances U.S. military preeminence, ultimately saving warfighter lives. Without proper Anti-Tamper implementations, national investments in advanced technologies will almost certainly be subjected to exploitation after positive control of the weapon system is lost.  AT provides Weapon System TAE resilience by avoiding costly development to replace exploited TAE.
 

Why is Cybersecurity Alone Not Enough?


Cybersecurity provides mission resilience while the weapon system is under U.S. control, but Anti-Tamper provides capability resilience even after one or more weapon systems are in the hands of the enemy.  Anti-Tamper works in conjunction with Cybersecurity to protect capability elements at all times, even when in enemy hands, as a complete, holistic program protection implementation.  Physical access after loss of positive control of the system creates a much larger risk, allowing for powerful attacks on the hardware itself, not just the software.  Simply put, Cybersecurity is not designed to provide protection from exploitation when a weapon system is out of US control.  This final line of defense, successfully hiding our nation’s secrets despite enemy control of the weapon system, is what separates Anti-Tamper from Cybersecurity and is the true benefit of implementing proper and effective Anti-Tamper protections.
 

Consequences of Exploitation to U.S. and Coalition Partners


“Hands-on” reverse engineering attacks enable an adversary to defeat, counter, or copy secret U.S. technology and capability advantages, leading to:
 
  1. Countermeasure development that decreases warfighting capabilities and significantly degrades our combat effectiveness 
  2. Significant alteration or loss in program technology, shortening the expected life of the weapon’s combat-effectiveness
  3. Change of capabilities in Direct Commercial Sales, Foreign Military Sales, and International Cooperative Development Programs
  4. Unauthorized transfer of U.S. critical design knowledge and manufacturing processes which minimizes U.S. competitive advantages
  5. Devaluation of U.S. investments in weapon system capabilities forcing unplanned investments to regain the U.S. advantage
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