Unisys Unveils Stealth for Government and Commercial Organizations

Zalud’s Blog just got off the phone with David Gardiner, spokesperson for Unisys in an exclusive briefing on the Unisys Stealth Solution for Network, a new information-sharing solution that can transform the way government agencies and companies secure the flow of sensitive information internally and across organizational lines.

Public and private sector organizations are under increasing pressure to give users and partners access to new types and sources of information to support rapid collaborative decision-making. However, the drive toward real-time information sharing is complicated by organizations’ need to ensure that data is secure, accessible only by authorized users; and always available only to the right people at the right time.

The Unisys Stealth Solution for Network addresses these challenges in a new and revolutionary way. The Stealth solution promotes secure information sharing strategies through the use of communities of interest to enable sharing of the same physical or virtual information network without fear of another group accessing their data or workstations and servers. By assigning a digital workgroup key to each community of interest, Stealth can ensure that users cannot access data outside of their assigned communities. The benefit is a much simpler network infrastructure, increased speed extending enterprise information to the edge and enhanced security of network data.

“Effective security and communications are inevitably linked in a post 9-11 world,” said David McClure, managing vice president, Gartner Government Research. “Rapid, flexible and secure collaboration is needed to meet the challenges of today’s national security environment. Information needs to flow in the right directions that empower diverse users and partner organizations to confidently share information without maintaining separate networks and infrastructure.”

In a survey this year of more than 100 Defense IT professionals, Unisys found that nearly 60% of respondents who said they have to share information across organizational and security domains confronted barriers to doing so. More than half said they are not comfortable having people of differing security levels on the same network.

To address this challenge, the Stealth solution employs patented technology from Unisys and Security First Corp., Unisys partner on the Stealth program. Stealth encrypts data, “bit-splits” that data into multiple packets as it moves through the network, and then reassembles the information packets for delivery to authorized users. These packets are proven secure through the use of certified encryption and unique bit-level splitting of the encrypted data.

Unisys will first target the Stealth solution to the U.S. federal government market to address the increasing needs of federal agencies to cope with controlled information – information that is not secret but also not accessible to the general public. The U.S. federal government employed more than 4 million users of this sensitive information in 2007, a number expected to grow as other state, local and international governments continue to deploy homeland security initiatives.

“Stealth delivers the right information to the right people at the right time,” said Ted Davies, president of Unisys Federal Systems. “Our government clients have been asking for a security solution like this for years. With Stealth, we can help them to simplify their networks without sacrificing security, while delivering significant cost savings.”

Unisys also expects its Stealth solution to generate interest beyond the federal government, especially in homeland security projects in state and local governments, and in the financial and healthcare communities where data security is especially critical. The Unisys Security Index, also released today, shows that most U.S. consumers (62 percent) continue to be extremely or very concerned about misuse of their personal data. At the same time, the research shows much lower concerns for Internet commerce such as online banking or shopping indicating opportunities for government and business to encourage e-commerce if trusted networks exist.

The Stealth solution has been under development and extensive testing for over four years, including vetting by government information assurance experts and internationally known cryptology experts. For example, in June Unisys successfully completed a live demonstration of the Stealth Solution for Network at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 2008, a Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed annual event demonstrating cutting-edge information technology that is ready for deployment. For this demonstration, Stealth was installed on a live government sensitive network.

Using SecureParser from Security First, Stealth encrypts information in compliance with the government’s FIPS 140-2 standard. The solution is also under evaluation for Common Criteria certification for use in classified environments. 

Stealth is available now. In addition to the Unisys Stealth Solution for Network, Unisys also is developing the Unisys Stealth Solution for SAN (Storage Area Network), which will extend the benefits of increased security, agility, and cost reduction opportunities to the SAN environment.