C3I: Australian firms tackle IT security

1 November 2007

By Julian Kerr

A small company in WA, Secure Systems, has cracked an IT security problem that has troubled government and defence agencies for years: how to secure laptops without rendering them brick-like in their functionality.

A small West Australian company is in discussions with Defence over the possible purchase of thousands of its innovative hardware encryption devices after the product successfully passed a rigorous High Grade evaluation by the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD).

The Silicon Data Vault (SDV), developed and produced by Perth-based Secure Systems, recently passed a High Grade DSD cryptographic evaluation, enabling it to secure information to SECRET level on laptops.

Peter James, CEO of the 15-employee company, told ADM that Secure Systems had worked very closely with DSD for 10 months, with the government agency checking every aspect of the design along the way.

“We had to change some of the cryptographic algorithms to meet DSD’s requirements, but we finished the work in July this year and the SDV is now confirmed as suitable for the storage and protection on laptops for information to the SECRET level”, he said.

Ian McKenzie, Director of the DSD, commented that the successful evaluation was not only an important step in the protection of classified electronic information, but also in government’s ability to transport this type of information securely.

How it all works
In simple terms, the SDV is a hard disc drive that can easily be retrofitted into a laptop to replace the original unit. This means absolute control over the hard disk drive at the earliest stage of initial start-up, which renders the laptop unusable until the user is authenticated.

Authentication is done by a password and insertion of a business card-type CD which is checked before access to data is allowed.

All data written to disc is totally encrypted by a hardware chip built into the hard drive.

“Where the SDV is clever is its ability to define different access profiles to different parts of the disc,” James commented. “Also, unlike software encryption the SDV resides beneath the operating system so it doesn’t interfere with it in any way”.

James pointed out that while commercial anti-spyware and anti-virus products could not protect Windows operating systems from unknown, so-called “Day Zero” threats, the SDV was able to do this by virtue of its ability to allow Windows to operate in a “read only” mode.

Data partitions can also be dynamically defined as “no access” to prevent illicit access.

Four families of patents are currently being processed for the innovative and unique features in the product.

Export opportunities
SDV sells for $1,450 per unit. Although sales have been made to commercial organisations, the great majority of customers to date are in the government sector, including Defence. Small numbers of the SDV have been sold overseas, although export approval is required to sell to other governments.

“We’re keen to work with Defence suppliers and systems integrators to enable protection of their own Defence-related data, and incorporation of the SDV into Defence projects” said James.

The original product’s first independent evaluation took place in 2003 at Howard University in Washington DC.
“We had an office in the US and we wanted some runs on the board,” James said.

According to the university’s report, stand-alone Windows-based workstations, clustered LINUX systems and a Cray T3E 1,000-processor mainframe were unsuccessful in defeating the SDV. The Cray had some limited success on its fifth try, but the data could not be decrypted.

Tenix’s EAL-7 accreditation
Australia’s pioneer in IT security has been Tenix, which commercialised the Interactive Link system, based on DSTO’s innovative Starlight multi-level security system.

In 2005 Tenix Datagate’s Interactive Link Data Diode achieved an unprecedented EAL-7 accreditation from the US National Information Assurance Partnership.

As part of the company’s Multi-level-secure Information Infrastructure (MI2) it went on to gain plaudits at the 2005 US Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID), sponsored by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The MI2 and Boeing’s Secure Network Server won top trial performer status in the 2005 CWID. The CWID is an annual event allowing US combatant commands and the international community to investigate new and emerging technologies that can move into operational use within six to 12 months of the execution period.

According to CWID, the Boeing-sponsored MI2 submission was one of the top technologies warranting possible fielding within the next 12 to 18 months.

The MI2 solution provides military users information sharing within and across multi-level security information domains, enhanced situational awareness and information surveillance reconnaissance dissemination.

Sam Maccherola, President of Tenix Datagate Inc., Tenix Datagate’s US arm, said intelligence and homeland security communities need cross-domain security and information-sharing solutions.

"Having CWID recognise our Data Diode following our EAL-7 certification from the US National Information Assurance Partnership reinforces that this technology is ready for deployment,” Mr Maccherola said.

“We were honoured to work with our partner Boeing as part of the MI2 solution and feel that together we offered a great method for providing interoperability between disparate organisations operating at different security levels."

Tenix Datagate is the leading authority in providing cross-domain solutions to the most secure defence and intelligence networks worldwide.

The company's primary solution offering is the Datagate Interactive Link Suite (ILS), which enables enterprise cross-domain collaboration, browsing and access to critical information and applications, while ensuring the industry's highest level of assurance.

ILS has successfully completed the NIAP Evaluation at the EAL-7 level. Tenix Datagate Inc. has forged strategic global relationships with some of the world's leading technology companies including Bell Canada, Boeing, Citrix, Dell, HP, Maxim Systems, Trusted Computer Solutions, Merlin Technology Systems, Microsoft and Sun.