CEALICIAN: Compact Encryption and Line-Integrated Circuitry for Information Assurance in Networking

The Department of Defense (DoD), and in particular various branches of our nation's Armed Forces, are increasingly utilizing unmanned platforms and unattended systems for various C4ISR-related efforts. The underlying systems often create, store, process, and/or transmit sensitive or classified data, requiring advanced cryptographic protection to assure data integrity, point-to-point authentication, confidentiality, and non-deniability. Currently, no certified solution exists that has been specifically developed for use in an unmanned environment. Existing solutions are power-hungry, not portable, and designed for large applications. CEALICIAN, Compact Encryption And Line-Integrated Circuitry for Information Assurance in Networking, is a low-power small-form-factor encryption device that allows an unmanned or unattended system to store and transmit classified data up to the Secret level. CEALICIAN will be integrated into existing storage and communications devices to encrypt and decrypt sensitive and classified information at a high data rate. CEALICIAN will encrypt both data-at-rest (DAR) and data-in-transit (DIT) using NSA Type 1 Suite B encryption in a power-efficient FPGA-based implementation.