ITT Exelis has been awarded an Air Force Cryptologic Systems Division contract to deliver prototype self-encrypting drives.
These secure solid state self-encrypting drives will be designed to protect data at rest in mobile applications, such as laptops and unmanned aerial vehicles, which will allow those systems to store information without fear of being compromised.
With this effort Exelis is delivering the ability to bring a secure “trusted” drive for the Department of Defense (DoD) mobile market. Previous Exelis advancements on the breakthrough National Security Agency (NSA)-certified Havasu secure network processor will be incorporated into self-encrypting drives, which will result in reduced size, weight, power and costs.
“Current laptops and DoD mobile applications use commercial drives, which provide significant security risks if they are lost or captured,” said Chris Bernhardt, Exelis executive vice president and president of the Electronic Systems division. “These secure drives are direct commercial drive replacements and are based upon our Scorpion Data-at Rest program. Our Scorpion drives provide cost-effective, high grade cryptography and eliminate the end user risk of stored data compromise.”
Engineering on this contract will be conducted at the company’s Electronic Systems division’s Tempe, Ariz., facility, and manufacturing will occur in Fort Wayne, Ind. The prototype work will be completed December 2012.
