BALTIMORE, Md., 6 May 2005. SafeNet, Inc. announced that its subsidiary Mykotronx, Inc. has begun beta-testing its new KIV-7M at U.S. government sites.
The KIV-7M is among the first products available that are fully compliant with the Cryptographic Modernization Initiative administered by the National Security Agency. Through this Initiative, the government has the ability to upgrade the security infrastructure of its communication architectures to meet present and future security needs.
The compact and rugged KIV-7M is a multichannel, multifunction encryptor which allows users to interoperate with a number of legacy devices in a single unit, reducing operating costs and saving valuable space and weight aboard vehicles, ships and aircraft. It is fully reprogrammable, permitting it to be reconfigured for new security features as they are developed, and it is network-capable by the addition of an optional HAIPE-compliant interface card.
The KIV-7M recently had its first public presentation at the quarterly meeting of the Cryptographic Modernization Working Group (CMWG) held in Linthicum Md. It meets the requirements of the NSA's Link Encryptor Family Interoperability Specification (LEFIS), which mandates modes of operation to provide interoperability. SafeNet expects to finish internal testing of the product in May, after which the National Security Agency will complete the security verification process. The company expects to send first shipments to the field in the third quarter of 2005.
"We are very excited about the future of U.S. Government security implementations and the role that KIV-7M will play in meeting these requirements," said Jim Summers, president of SafeNet Mykotronx. "The KIV-7M has all the capability of its predecessors and adds new capabilities which permit traditional secure communications architectures to migrate seamlessly to the Global Information Grid."
Chris Fedde, senior vice president and general manager for SafeNet's Enterprise Security Division, said: "The KIV-7M is the newest member of the KIV-7 family. By polling the users of our current KIV-7 products, we determined the features most desired and overlaid the requirements of the NSA Crypto-Modernization Initiative and the Global Information Grid -- the result is the KIV-7M."
Since 1979, SafeNet's products have been protecting a wide variety of U.S. government communications systems now being upgraded under the Cryptographic Modernization Initiative. SafeNet's KIV-7 product line has earned a significant share of the stringent government security market. SafeNet's KIV-7M is the latest and most fully-featured generation of the product line.
In a recent issue of Signal Magazine, Brig. Gen. Edward L. Mahan Jr., USAF, the outgoing deputy for acquisition at the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center, estimated that the crytographic modernization program "may cost upwards of $7 billion across the entire U.S. Defense Department."
SafeNet is a global leader in information security. Founded more than 20 years ago, the company provides complete security utilizing its encryption technologies to protect communications, intellectual property and digital identities, and offers a full spectrum of products including hardware, software, and chips. ARM, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, Adobe, Samsung, Texas Instruments, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and scores of other customers entrust their security needs to SafeNet. For more information, see www.safenet-inc.com.
