Viasat’s encryption team has reached a major milestone, surpassing 100K high-assurance cryptography devices delivered to government customers.
For more than 25 years, Viasat has been committed to supporting the government with high assurance encryption solutions that meet customers’ operational needs. The company considers it a duty to help keep the government’s most sensitive data secure from emerging and evolving threats.
Cybersecurity is an integrated capability that Viasat prioritizes in everything it produces to proactively defend customers’ data communications with highly robust and reliable solutions.
Part of Viasat’s Defense and Advanced Technologies segment, Viasat’s encryption team just recently celebrated surpassing 100,000 high-assurance cryptography devices delivered to government customers. Over the years, Viasat’s encryption solutions have earned a ubiquitous presence – fielded everywhere in the military community to protect information from the tactical edge on the battlefield to enterprise cloud networks and data centers to satellite ground operations and space assets.
Viasat’s end-to-end encryption portfolio focuses on safeguarding the United States’ most critical data from being compromised or stolen. But designing, developing, manufacturing and delivering these solutions is no simple task.
The team works hard to fully understand the changing needs and challenges of protecting government data. And the company’s 35+ year heritage of building communications and encryption products – paired with expert analysis of data across Viasat’s global ISP network – gives the team a diverse view of the global cyber threat landscape.
This knowledge enables Viasat to deliver flexible, robust data security through a comprehensive range of high assurance (Type 1) network encryptor solutions that are tunable to specific needs for protecting the most sensitive data at rest and in transit.
“We didn’t reach 100,000 devices [shipped] overnight. It took time, experience and a dedicated team commitment to truly understanding customers’ requirements to earn lasting trust,” said Mike Blakely, Vice President of Secure Network Systems.
With decades of innovation and commitment to customer requirements, Viasat’s encryption solutions are strategically designed with best-in-class technologies and the capabilities needed by government users:
The Highest Security Standards
Viasat’s Type 1 embedded solutions are National Security Administration (NSA) certified to ensure proven, intelligent protection. These certifications are not easy to achieve. They require having the right people and procedures in place – people who are willing to undergo extensive analysis and testing to design products that hold up to the highest of government security standards.
Full Flexibility
Viasat’s foundational architecture is backed by reprogrammable, high-assurance technologies to allow for multiple modes of operations and form factors. Through the company’s understanding of customer needs and its own experience, Viasat’s encryption team comprises experts in designing high-performance, low-size, weight and power (SWaP) products that are easy to transport and to install, even when handling large amounts of data. Viasat products are designed to seamlessly integrate with the most complex, automated and accredited government IT infrastructures.
This flexibility enables users to change interfaces and form factors – as well as make network upgrades – without needing a full-scale replacement of their hardware.
Innovation for the Cloud
Viasat was the first-ever to offer a 100-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Type 1 network encryption device for high-speed processing. Known as the KG-142, this Ethernet Data Encryptor (EDE) brings the same power of 10 separate 10 Gbps encryptors in a single unit.
Today, the KG-142 is still the first NSA-certified Type 1 Layer 2 Media Access Control Security (MACsec) Ethernet encryptor capable of operating at speeds up to 200 Gbps with a field-proven, software-upgradeable design. This level of protection remains essential for mission operations relying on high-bandwidth applications like cloud computing or big data processing.
Speed is also important at the tactical edge, which is why Viasat produces some of the fastest, most rugged, low SWaP High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) solutions that use the latest technologies and software to provide the network security which tactical and mobile users rely on.
And Viasat’s next-generation ground-to-space encryption is built to protect sensitive Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) and mission data communications between Satellite Operations Centers (SOCs) and satellites on orbit, while reducing the complexity and costs associated with integrating multiple satellites and space systems with a single device.
Viasat is always looking at emerging technologies – including embedded machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) – to enhance its solutions. As part of the company’s commitment to the innovation government customers require, it aims to remain on the forefront of next-generation encryption development to ensure it continues to help deliver the protection government networks and data require.
Beyond the technical encryption expertise, Viasat’s support team continues to go to great lengths to help address customers’ needs and solve issues – even if it’s sometimes unrelated to the company’s solutions – because Viasat believes that is what mission partners should do.
Blakely continued, “After 25 years, we understand the complexities of working with the government to protect sensitive information and have continuously evolved our solutions to meet the needs of today’s environment, through different platforms, devices and applications.
“Our team rises to these challenges and delivers solutions and support that provide the security needed to perform missions with confidence. More than anything else, that is what reaching 100,000 represents for our team.”
