Despite the best of efforts, the number of attacks on “protected sites” (hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure of importance) are increasingly with alarming frequency. This article considers this problem primarily from an operational point of view and proposes a specific and implementable “concept-technology” solution involving the use of QR codes/coding to mark “protected sites” and blockchain technologies to address it. In the process, this article highlights the critical importance of considering seriously the targeting process used by modern militaries in the context of the problem at hand. It also critically examines two recent proposals that have been made to address this problem. The article describes in some detail the architecture, process-flow, and advantages of the solution that it offers vis-à-vis the other currently available options and the ways and means by which emergent combat systems manned and unmanned can, as a default state, incorporate measures by which they can “attend to protected symbols” in complex battlespaces, thereby augmenting and strengthening the United Nations’ “deconfliction” mechanism.