SBIR-STTR Award

KMI Aware Secure Data Module for Leave-Behind Applications
Award last edited on: 5/2/2023

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : Navy
Total Award Amount
$139,958
Award Phase
1
Solicitation Topic Code
N222-124
Principal Investigator
Otaway Thomas

Company Information

Arkham Technology Ltd (AKA: Arkham Technology Limited)

8001 Irvine Center Drive Suite 1400
Irvine, CA 92618
   (949) 228-6677
   arkinfo@arkhamtechnology.com
   www.arkhamtechnology.com
Location: Single
Congr. District: 45
County: Orange

Phase I

Contract Number: N68335-23-C-0136
Start Date: 11/28/2022    Completed: 5/29/2023
Phase I year
2023
Phase I Amount
$139,958
Small un-crewed Navy platforms, such as Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) and Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs), have extreme Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constraints. The encryptors they use to protect their Data-at-Rest (D@R) and Data-in-Transit (DiT) must shrink to meet upcoming needs, however, many of the existing End Cryptographic Units (ECUs) certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) are too large and powerful for future platforms. In addition, in order to be certified by NSA, all new cryptographic designs must meet the Department of Defenses (DoDs) new CryptoMod2 requirements, with which few, if any, existing cryptographic components currently comply. Our solution for the Navy addresses these issues with a solve once and scale mindset. Arkham Technology has the credentials and specialized environment to develop and certify a new high-assurance cryptographic device for the Navy. In addition, we have TRL-9 cryptologic Intellectual Property (IP) products that can be reused in the design to reduce risk. Furthermore, we have designed innovative CryptoMod2 technologies under previous SBIR Phase II efforts. We will leverage these capabilities to provide the Navy a small ECU device to secure the sensitive data on unattended devices. Our solution supports both network-based D@R and DiT in applications with limited bandwidth or intermittent connectivity. We support loading NSA keys manually, however, we also provide automated KMI-aware key and certificate management without operator intervention over very limited bandwidth and intermittent connectivity. In addition, our solution turns the Navys sensors into Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) with an encrypted and authenticated interface to the Navys IL-6 classified cloud computing infrastructure, allowing tighter integration between the Navys sensor data and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) analytics for real-time expert decision-making.

Benefit:
Arkham Technology solved the Navys need for securing sensitive classified data on future unattended and un-crewed vehicles, by providing an innovative high-assurance Data at Rest (D@R) and Data in Transit (DiT) encryptor, to enable upcoming warfighter missions. Our design recapitalizes National Security Agency (NSA) evaluated cryptologic products to reduce development cost and risk. It supports the Governments latest CryptoMod 2 policies for high-assurance encryptors, including remote authenticated key delivery through the Key Management Infrastructure (KMI). The objective solution provides the Navy an open-standard device, embeddable in a wide range of host systems, including Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs), and Small Unmanned Airborne Systems (SUAS).

Keywords:
NSA, NSA, Certificate, Cryptographic, DAR, KMI, Unmanned, Data at Rest, COMSEC

Phase II

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: 00/00/00    Completed: 00/00/00
Phase II year
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Phase II Amount
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