NSA Approves Wave Relay Devices for Securing Classified Information
The National Security Agency (NSA) has validated Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay devices as IPsec VPN Gateway and MACsec components that can handle classified information, according to the mobile networking solutions company’s press release.
The NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list aims to provide commercial technology alternatives to Type 1 cybersecurity solutions for protecting sensitive information. CSfC clients are National Security Systems stakeholders, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community and the military. These federal agencies use the commercial solutions to quickly implement cybersecurity solutions, the NSA website said.
The NSA has used Type 1 products to encrypt and decrypt classified national security information for decades, but these devices are expensive to develop and are classified themselves, requiring extra levels of security. The CSfC alternative allows clients to layer commercial security solutions for extra protection of classified data.
According to the release, Persistent is the first and only mobile ad hoc network solution provider on the CSfC component list.
“The NSA CSfC approval of our non-ITAR [International Traffic in Arms Regulations] commercial networking solution ensures that warfighters will have secure access to classified data even when working with foreign partners,” said Leslie Hulser, executive vice president of Persistent Systems, in the release. “We anticipate agile deployment of communication and networking equipment will be vital in potential battlespaces, like the island chains across the Indo-Pacific region.”
Persistent Systems engineers its Wave Relay mobile ad hoc network and Cloud Relay technology to transmit voice, video and situational awareness under difficult conditions, the release stated. The company unites warfighters, unmanned ground vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors, cameras and devices on a common network through Wave Relay.
According to Persistent Systems, its commercial tactical networking devices can aid the U.S. military by allowing combined operations with allies, integration with commercial software and drone swarm usage. The company’s networking hardware does not require expensive and specialized training, nor extensive safeguard protocols.
Persistent currently uses its MACsec and IPsec security protocols to meet the requirements of the CSfC multisite connectivity and tactical capability packages for the company’s Cloud Relay solution, which securely connects teams over 5G cellular or Starlink across the globe, the release stated.
“We solved the difficult part. The attack surfaces of SATCOM [satellite communications] and host nation cellular communication are vast, representing the most exposed domains in modern military communication,” said James Harrison, principal product security engineer at Persistent Systems, in the release. “Now, our two layers of NSA CSfC-approved encryption enable users to communicate confidently across these transports, with the encryption residing on their MPU5 handheld MANET [mobile ad hoc network] devices—reducing size, weight, power, cost and complexity on the end user.”
Additionally, the NSA grants National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) product compliant list certifications to commercial off-the-shelf information technology solutions that are secure for government and defense applications, the release said.
“NIAP certification is recognized by 33 nations as a standardized framework for evaluating and approving cybersecurity solutions, so this is great news for our international customers who want a validated and secure product,” Hulser said.
