After the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine began using the DELTA digital combat management system. It operates at all levels of the Armed Forces, but is often targeted by Russian hackers. To increase security, physical keys were introduced to log into the system – about 30 thousand of them have already been issued, writes Bloomberg.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defenсe, the system can automatically recognize enemy equipment using artificial intelligence and is connected to drone control systems. The more actively it was used, the more it became a target for Russian hackers. AI also helps detect and mark suspicious systems.
Oleg Naumenko, head of cybersecurity company Hideez, announced back in April 2022 that to increase DELTA security, they are introducing 10,000 free physical keys — portable devices that add an additional layer of protection when logging into the system.
This week, Naumenko said that as of 2025, 30,000 keys have already been deployed, 22,000 of which are used exclusively for military purposes. The devices, known as YubiKeys, are provided by California-based Yubico Inc. and distributed by Hideez.
Naumenko says that such keys "solve a lot of problems." If used instead of passwords, the risk of phishing attacks disappears. Security keys work on the basis of public-key cryptography: during authentication, information from the chip is compared with data on online servers. Unlike regular login data, which can be stolen, these keys are much more difficult to crack.
Let us recall that in just two months after the introduction of DELTA at all levels of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, it has verified over 130 thousand destroyed and damaged enemy targets, 25% of which were enemy personnel.
DELTA has also recently become a key management tool in NATO exercises.