Method of Authenticating Requests Between Electronic Devices

Architecture and method for a moving target defense (MTD) system and authentication protocol to protect networked or coupled systems including networks of servers, computers, security systems, medical devices, IT networks, and other critical assets against cyberattacks via indirect messaging to synchronize moving targets between protected systems. The MTD system may include a generator, a conditioner, a permutator, an indexer, and a state matrix to generate a state matrix of target locations based on a randomly generated used once number that may be used by networked systems to select new moving targets. The state matrix may be used by in an authentication protocol to provide a 2FA/challenge/response for requests received from systems in a network.