Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today announced that DARC-ssd™ 600, its U.K. designed and manufactured next-generation data-at-rest (DAR) encrypted solid state drive (SSD), has been approved by the NATO Military Committee (MC) for securing up to and including NATO SECRET Data when at rest and is now listed on the NATO Information Assurance Product Catalogue (NIAPC). This approval from MC and inclusion in the NIAPC recognises Viasat’s solution meets the stringent requirements for securing NATO SECRET data, meaning it can be used by NATO nations to help protect NATO classified data in their systems from theft or compromise.
Viasat’s advanced data-at-rest solution expands on legacy DAR encryption solutions, providing enhanced protection for classified data across multiple systems and platforms with hardware-based encryption and continued assurance for high-risk operations using a more flexible M.2 form factor. By using the industry standard Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface and common form factor M.2 2280, the DARC-ssd™ 600 will allow customers to integrate next-generation encryption with the latest commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and tactical military devices – laptops, tablets, desktops, and network-attached storage.
“As a trusted provider of cyber defence and information assurance solutions, we’ve seen the evolution of encryption technology and understand the growing challenge to protect sensitive and classified data across the many devices and platforms capturing data now used for government missions,” said Todd McDonell, President of Viasat International Government. “DARC-ssd™ 600 is designed with the flexibility to address this challenge and deliver significantly improved performance compared to past data-at-rest solutions, continuing Viasat’s legacy of innovating to provide hardware encryption solutions at the highest levels to protect classified and sensitive information.”
Expanding on Viasat’s family of Eclypt DAR encryption products, DARC-ssd™ 600 integrates military level 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware with full disk hardware encryption. Data is decrypted upon bootup of the device with mandatory two-factor authentication and then encrypted immediately when the device is powered off. Viasat’s solution combines this dual authentication and full disk hardware encryption within a tamper-evident internal NVMe™ M.2 SSD to safeguard sensitive and classified data.
In 2023, the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) completed its CAPS High Grade evaluation of DARC-ssd™ 600 for the protection of data up to Top Secret classification. The DARC-ssd solution is the only DAR encryption device using an NVMe interface and small form factor (M.2) that is CAPS evaluated for use securing up to and including TOP SECRET data.
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