Firm pioneers new data protection technique for U.S. military
Trivalent is providing U.S. Special Forces with a new data protection technique which leverages encryption and a new method called digital shredding to improve data protections.
U.S. Special Forces, Air Force Special Operators and several military services are exploring a new data security technology that can encrypt, disperse and reassemble sensitive content using next generation algorithms, industry sources said.
The technology seeks to leverage encryption and new algorithms to bring security through a process called digital shredding, said Ricardo Bueno, founder and chief strategy officer at Trivalent.
“We built something different. The technology that we built uses some standard techniques of encryption with a data protection technique called information dispersal. That is a formal term for taking data that has been encrypted and applying an algorithm to digitally fracture data into a bunch of different pieces,” he said. “This goes well beyond standard block level encryption.”
The method uses encryption while shredding the data into multiple storage pieces or shards; pockets of protected data can then exist on a cloud server or any one of many different computer locations, such as a hard drive, before being reassembled.
The technology is aimed at making data less vulnerable to hostile intruders, advanced hackers or adversaries looking to access U.S. military computer networks.
The goal of aggregating various shards of information in need of recovery or integration depends upon an ability to assemble large numbers of disparate pieces of information, drawing from a small number of pieces, Bueno said.
“If I have access to a few pieces of data at any given time, I can still recombine 100 percent of my data. There is not much latency time. No discernable latency time for humans,” he said.
According to Bueno, U.S. Special Forces are now in the midst of an integration process to merge the technology into its operational baseline. The plan is to deploy the system by the end of the year.
Bueno added that the National Security Agency has given Trivalent the only certification to perform this service. Given the lack of certified competitors, all of Trivalent’s deals have been awarded sole-source, Bueno said.