secure communications for national critical infrastructure

Cellcrypt Solutions for National Critical Infrastructure

Protection through Communication

Cellcrypt Solutions for National Critical InfrastructuresThe global community relies on critical infrastructure for everything from transportation to electricity; telecommunications capabilities to financial services; healthcare to clean drinking water and a safe food supply. Protecting and securing the infrastructure from the effects of a terrorist attack is critical to global security, public health and safety, and economical vitality.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified 18 critical infrastructure sectors and established the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), which provides structure and activities to enhance protection. Other countries have made similar efforts to first identify critical infrastructure elements and then put in place improved procedures for prevention, preparedness and response to potential attacks on:

  • Electric/power grid
  • Telecommunications
  • Water supply
  • Agriculture/food supply
  • Transportation
  • Public health
  • Financial/banking

Around the globe, the successful protection of critical infrastructure starts with the ability to communicate and share information securely without fear that the communication will fall into the wrong hands and unintentionally jeopardize the safety of the installation. Whether you are responsible for the security of a major communications switching installation or running a liquid gas facility, Cellcrypt’s cost-effective, easy-to-use software solutions leverage the ubiquity of cellular communications to create a secure communications channel among employees, service providers, partners and anyone else in your community of interest.

Around the world, Cellcrypt’s highly-scalable and quickly-deployable solutions leverage commercial-off-the-shelf cell phones to provide unmatched levels of security by protecting all sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information shared by critical infrastructure providers and their network of partners. Imagine a national power grid and the control centers, transmission substations, and power generators that make up the network. Thousands of workers, service providers, security firms and others provide service to keep the critical elements of the grid working and online. They control access to key resources on the network and schedule onsite maintenance at multiple facilities. Much of the information shared among this community of interest is done via cellular communications, but is it secure?

Cellcrypt’s end-to-end security solutions are transport independent and work over all cellular networks, Wi-Fi networks, and satellite, making them the most convenient solution for critical infrastructure protection. Whether conducting daily location surveillance or responding to an event, Cellcrypt leverages the ubiquity of the cell phone, enabling seamless, secure, and interoperable communications across agencies and among unique and changing communities of interest, all in a protected environment.

For specific information on Cellcrypt solutions for critical infrastructure providers, click here.

Enables multi-community interoperability especially in urgent and time-critical situations where there is little time to setup secure comms:

  • Easy to Use
    • Software is virtually transparent to the user and requires no training. Cellcrypt’s end-to-end security solutions are transport independent and work over all cellular networks, Wi-Fi networks, and satellite
  • Easy to Deploy and Manage
    • The downloadable app makes installation easy and highly scalable with no bulky hardware to store
  • Scalable security
    • End-to-end encryption and secure key management
  • Cost-effective
    • Leverages ubiquity of the cell phone and available enterprise cellular contracts
  • Safe and Tested
    • Meets important U.S. government security certifications including the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s FIPS-140-2 and the National Security Agency’s Suite B

Operating System

  • AndroidTM
  • BlackBerry®
  • iOS
  • Symbian S60 (Nokia E-Series, N-Series devices)
     

Any IP-enabled network, e.g.

  • GSM/CDMA
  • 2G
  • 3G
  • 4G
  • Satellite
  • Wi-Fi™

Cellcrypt uses standard encryption technologies including:

  • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for symmetric encryption
  • Elliptic-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) for digital signatures
  • Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) for key agreement
  • Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) for message digest

In addition, before these algorithms are processed, Cellcrypt uses additional algorithms for added security (double-wrapping). For example, the voice call is first encrypted using RC4-256 bit and then encrypted again using AES-256 bit.

Public Cryptography
(2048-bit RSA, & ECDSA, ECDH using curves with 384-bit prime moduli)
RSA and ECDSA are used for authentication. The key pairs are generated on the phone during the installation and are unique to each phone. A private key is never shared. The Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) and RSA algorithms are used for key exchange. The session key is only valid for one phone call and securely destroyed after use.

Symmetric Cryptography
(AES & RC4, both 256 bits)
Both encryption algorithms are used at the same time. The data packet is first encrypted with RC4 and the cipher text is then encrypted again with AES in Counter Mode (CTR). Both algorithms are initialized with the exchanged session keys.

Hashing Algorithms
(SHA512)
Industry standard hashing algorithms are used for increased integrity assurance.

Random Number Generation
A 2048 bit seed pool is generated during the installation and is periodically updated. The initial seed is derived from the microphone input.