Risks … and Opportunities
Once the only certainties in life were death and taxes – now, for those of us connected to each other electronically, we must add ‘risks’ to the list of the inevitable.
Every day we read of even more inventive ways that cyber snoops, let’s call them cyber crims, are employing to glean information in the ultimate quest to make a dollar in tough times.
From small snippets of personal and corporate intelligence they assemble information, often enough information to get into networks through the front door, rather than resorting to tapping into the network infrastructure.
At the RSA conference in San Francisco where Senetas was again represented, amazing tales abound of how the cyber crims have established pre-packed emporiums, supermarkets of scam, with front and back office support , even billing systems, designed simply to professionalise online crime and simplify the task of stealing user names, passwords, bank account or HR details. They sell for thousands so they obviously can return much more than that.
So why focus on risk. Simply because all of us are also offered opportunity. Except, unlike risk, opportunity is not a constant. It comes into your business life, sometimes disguised, and it walks beside you for a while, when you can either choose to take it up or pass it by.
Senetas presents opportunities to government and business every day – opportunities to avoid risk, the embarrassment of data loss, financial rip-offs due to online intrusion or network compromise.
Encryption is not new, but it is a constant. A well-proven method of keeping your business information secure. I am pleased to say that over the past year we have created many opportunities with new and upgraded products specifically designed to minimise business risk and enable safer business communications, even in the most hostile environments. As a result we do see more organisations getting proactive about the assets they transmit every day across the electronic ether without really knowing who’s listening in.
Recognising our own opportunities Senetas pursued some exciting opportunities to expand product development into the highest levels of secret government communications and we have also taken opportunities to expand our reseller channel into India and Korea.
John DuBois
Senetas Wins Victorian Government eServices Panel Appointment
Senetas Corporation Limited announced recently that it has won appointment to additional specialist service categories on the Whole of Victorian Government eServices Panel, which will enable the company to bid for a much broader range of government services contracts.
Over the past three years Senetas has provided consulting services in security and business intelligence applications to a number of Victorian government departments including, Human Services, Health, Justice, Education and Innovation and Regional Development.
Senetas CEO, John DuBois said it was a significant win for the consulting arm of the company and would positively impact consulting revenues next year.
Commenting on the win, Senetas General Manager – Consulting, Larry Wilson said the appointment was “a recognition of the quality of our services and consultants, who enjoy some of the highest utilisation rates in the industry”.
“From July 1, we are able to bid for an extra 13 categories of IT services in addition to the work we’re already doing for Victoria,” Mr. Wilson said. The range of additional specialist services include strategy development, business analysis and testing, relating to security; information architecture of general IT, desktop and databases; design and development for groupware; integration and implementation of web/multimedia, data migration and conversion; plus maintenance and support across .NET, Groupware, web/multimedia and database applications.
Shareholder Update
Senetas Profit
Anticipated full-year results to 30 June 2009:
On June 23, 2009 the Board of Senetas Corporation Limited (ASX: SEN), the world’s leading developer and supplier of high speed network encryption hardware, announced that the company’s full year profit before tax to June 30, 2009, would be between $650,000 and $1,000,000.
Senetas Appoints Korean reseller for CypherNet
 John DuBois congratulates IS Song, Director of iTEC Korea |
Korea’s iTEC Technologies Ltd has been appointed a reseller of Senetas’ high speed CypherNet encryption technology.
iTEC, based in Seoul, has extensive experience in network solutions and services, particularly in optoelectronics. It will have reseller rights for South Korea, the world’s 13th largest economy.
Senetas CEO, John DuBois said the agreement, signed early this year in Seoul, opened Korea to a global encryption standard, where previously it had relied upon a home-grown 128-bit block cipher called SEED, which is used nowhere else.
Mr DuBois said iTEC would represent the range of CypherNet high speed Layer 2 encryption plus Senetas’ newly-developed low cost small footprint CypherStream, switchable between Layer 2 and Layer 3 IPSec. Cypherstream offers alternate encryption algorithms, had included Korea’s SEED and Japan’s Camelia algorithms and maintained the robustness for which Senetas equipment is renowned.
“But CypherStream also gives end-users numerous options including: the ability to encrypt across multiple platforms at Layer 2 and IP layer 3; compatability with the global standards but able to use various Government-approved encryption algorithms; encryption of VOIP, Video and Data traffic; operability in both point-to-point and mesh modes; remote management; and protection of the customized cipher in the event of theft or loss,” MrDuBois said.
He said Korea was a potentially large market for encryption, particularly for fibre optic networks as it has the largest broadband uptake in Asia Pacific.
Latest research shows South Korea has greater than 90 per cent penetration of fibre networks carrying voice, video and data, including FTTH (fiber-to-the-home), FTTN (fiber-to-the-node) and FTTB (fiber-to-the-building). Behind China, Japan and India, Korea today is also the 4th largest Data centre market in Asia and growing fast.
Last October South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo warned that said Chinese and North Korean computer hackers were trying to obtain state secrets after the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that about 130 000 items of government information had been hacked since 2004.
Mr DuBois said Senetas had repeatedly warned, and actively demonstrated, that fibre optic cable was vulnerable to eavesdropping through the use of a readily-obtainable fibre-tap device, but CypherNet encryption solved the problem by protecting personal and financial network data quickly and cost‑effectively.
“We view SENETAS encryption devices as a critical component of reliable security management platforms in next-generation data centers and Government networks” says Mr. Song In-Sun, ITEC President.
“ITEC has a well established expertise in the Optoelectronics and Bandwidth management markets and considers SENETAS as an exciting addition to its portfolio”.
Senetas CypherNet Goes Live in First Multipoint Quantum Network
Last month (June) Senetas Corporation announced that its 10Gb high speed Ethernet encryptors had gone live in Switzerland, as part of a multi-point quantum network known as the SwissQuantum Project.
Installation of the network began in March 2009 in Geneva and it is being used for the long-term demonstration of quantum cryptography technology. A website that allows monitoring of the network performance also went live today at www.swissquantum.com.
For the past two years Senetas has partnered with Geneva-based idQuantique to develop and successfully release Cerberis, the world’s first hybrid quantum encryptor using the laws of quantum physics to enhance the security of communications over optical fibre networks.
 Professor Gisin (l) with Gregoire Ribordy, CEO of Senetas partner, idQuantique SA |
The network consists of three nodes in the Geneva metropolitan area in a triangle configuration. These nodes are connected by optical fibers and host quantum cryptography and data encryption equipment. The network is used to secure a 10 Gb Ethernet link between CERN, the European nuclear research body, and the University of Geneva.
The multi-node quantum network testbed will provide long-term testing and demonstration of quantum cryptography technology and its applications and will be used for R&D, demonstration and education purposes in the field of quantum communications.
Senetas is one of a dozen partners both from industry and academia involved in the project and CEO John DuBois said it was an exciting opportunity to further demonstrate the capability of Senetas and idQuantique.
“We have successfully deployed our joint Cerberis solution on three continents to absolutely secure point-to-point networks, but this project raises the bar even higher demonstrating multi-node network security,” Mr DuBois said.
“The ability to guarantee the absolute security of data in transmission around a multi-node network more closely approximates the requirements of organisations that often need to secure multiple inter-connected sites, such as head office and branch networks.
Prof. Gisin said: “The SwissQuantum project represents an important milestone in the development of quantum technologies, as it is the first time that such a network is deployed for an extended period of time and will be used to transmit real traffic.
“In previous projects, the quantum networks were just deployed for a short period of time and for demonstration purposes. This project will allow the maturity of quantum key distribution technologies to be fully established.”
The quantum cryptographic layer was installed in March 2009 and has been running continuously since. Encryption applications will be added progressively until the end of July. A public demonstration will take place in October 2009 at the ITU Telecom World show in Geneva.
Thai R&D Agency Signs MOU with Senetas
Senetas Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for technology collaboration with Thailand’s National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) in February 2009.
Last year NECTEC, part of Thailand’s National Science and Technology Development Agency, became the first country in Asia with quantum encryption, establishing a quantum encryption R&D testbed training and demonstration centre for Thai government and business at its campus near Bangkok.
Senetas CEO John DuBois and NECTEC Director, Dr. Pansak Siriruchatapong, signed the MOU in Thailand and agreed to share knowledge and practical skills, to exchange Senetas engineers and NECTEC research scientists for collaborative work programs and to collaborate in identified fields including information infrastructure and intelligent systems.
Dr. Pansak said: “With Senetas’ world-wide experiences and expertise, we are confident that the Senetas/NECTEC collaboration will be mutually beneficial and enriching for both parties.”
Mr DuBois spoke after the formal signing ceremony detailing how Senetas had worked closely with idQuantique in Switzerland to help them commercialise an idea developed in the laboratories of the University of Geneva. He said he hoped NECTEC’s scientists would also succeed in developing innovative projects that could be similarly commercialized for Asian and world markets.
“We have established a good working relationship with NECTEC and its leadership over the past year and they have enabled us to effectively demonstrate our encryption technology to government and business. This MOU effectively strengthens the links between us and will enable further information and resource sharing between Senetas’ skilled engineering team adding academic and research skills to this important area of information technology,” he said.
Principal Researcher and head of NECTEC’s optical and quantum communications Laboratory, Dr Keattisak Sripimanwat said discussions had already identified initial projects in Thailand that would investigate data security for a “Smart Health” project, and to further investigate the effective data security of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM).
Senetas Boosts Technology Accreditation …Increases Opportunity for Government Business
In a mid-year announcement to the ASX, Senetas said it was upgrading the accreditation for its world-leading high speed network encryption technology, adding further to information assuredness for government and potentially growing its information security market.
Senetas is the only high speed network encryption manufacturer on the Australian Government’s Evaluated Product List (EPL) and has accreditation for both recognised global data security standards: Common Criteria EAL-4 and FIPS 140-2 Level 3.
CEO, John DuBois said Senetas was now further investing in its world-class encryption solution by undertaking the higher EAL4+ accreditation process, which he says “will increase our available market, both locally and offshore”.
“This accreditation is a mandated requirement to sell to the Australian and New Zealand and many governments in Europe. The United States, which endorses FIPS, has also expressed increasing interest in EAL,” he said
In addition, the company established in Melbourne over 10 years ago, is also currently under independent evaluation for re-accreditation to the US-sponsored FIPS standard, which will include Senetas’ newest 10 Gb Ethernet product and its latest firmware releases.
Mr DuBois said that enhancing both accreditations was “an expensive investment in both time and dollars” to ensure the company remained at the forefront of global government security hardware standards.
“But, while costly, we believe it is a necessary activity that ultimately benefits both government and business customers through the certified assurance it provides that our secure technology and our processes are robust.
“Therefore, we are understandably concerned when we see State Governments taking risks with personally identifiable information (PII) that is transmitted across networks without being encrypted; likewise we wonder whether shareholders and customers of some major financial institutions are aware of the risk that data being transmitted ‘in the clear’ by their banks using unsecured fibre optic networks can be tapped into,” he said.
Mr DuBois said Senetas technology, designed to take global AES 256-bit standard encryption algorithms, is military strength encryption that requires trillions of years to crack by exhausting all possible algorithm combinations.
Regardless of the technology chosen Mr DuBois said it was critical to have confidence that the vendor’s claimed security is effective and is implemented correctly.
“Choosing purpose-built technology accredited to an independent, internationally recognised standard such as Common Criteria and FIPS 140, helps ensure trust in the quality of the solution and is therefore of paramount importance for an organisation,” he said
“We believe our globally-certified network security is the fastest, simplest solution to immediately securing high speed networks which now carry immense information payloads. Up to 10 gigabits of data per second travel across these networks, so it is inevitable that we read of massive data loss as cybercriminals hack in and access millions of pieces of personally identifiable information. Encrypting these high speed links using CypherNet immediately renders the information unintelligible, yet maintains high speed data throughput” he said.
Senetas releases new encryptor for customised algorithms… opens new international markets
Senetas in February announced the release to market of a flexible new encryption platform capable of using customised algorithms.
Senetas engineers have spent the past three months developing the purpose-built CypherStream encryptor for both point-point and fully meshed layer 2 and layer 3 (IPSec) Ethernet networks, running algorithms other than the recognised AES 256-bit standard.
CypherStream was originally built to take global AES standard algorithms that take trillions of years to crack by exhausting all possible algorithm combinations. Users can load their own encryption algorithm into the encryptor via a software interface.
“Based on opportunities identified in India, Singapore and Vietnam, we recognise that not everyone wants to use the AES algorithms, so we have extended CypherStream’s software architecture to enable it to accept a range of other algorithms, including Japan’s Camellia, and Korea’s SEED standards,” Senetas CEO John DuBois said.
He said the new product was based on feedback from existing resellers and partners.
“They tell us this will provide Senetas with a greatly expanded market opportunity in certain economies that prefer an alternative to the US Government-adopted AES security standard. Its extreme versatility in performance, security and cost-effectiveness also gives us global reach into the growing market of security-conscious small business and professional firms that require increased security to counter aggressive online fraudsters,” Mr DuBois said.
Capable of securing both layer 2 (Ethernet) and layer 3 (IP) networks at line rates in excess of 100 Mbps, the customisable CypherStream remains fully compatible with Senetas’ premium CypherNet Ethernet encryption platform running at 100 Mbps up to 10 Gbps.
“It is ideally suited for distributed network environments where high speed central office or data centre locations are connected to multiple remote or branch office sites,” Mr DuBois said.
Senetas Appoints CypherNet Reseller for India
TVSNet, a 98 year-old Indian company with 30,000 employees in 30 companies and an annual turnover of US $ 5 Billion in fields as diverse as auto manufacturing, automotive dealerships, finance, logistics and electronics, has been appointed a CypherNet reseller by Senetas.
TVSNet Technologies Ltd has extensive experience in Data Networking, Info Security and Storage and will resell CypherNet from its Chennai base.
Senetas CEO, John DuBois said the agreement signed in Chennai earlier this year followed five months of discussions.
He said TVSNet would represent the range of CypherNet high speed Layer 2 encryption to India’s Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sectors, plus Senetas’ newly-developed low cost small footprint CypherStream, switchable between Layer 2 and Layer 3 IPSec and Fibre Channel devices.
 Vinay Agarwal, CEO of TVSIC at Senetas head office with John DuBois |
However he said TVSNet had also identified keen interest in India in Senetas CypherStream with its ability to run selectable and customisable algorithms. The crypto-agile version of CypherStream, which has just been released to market by Senetas, is also attracting interest in South East Asia for its ability to accept standard AES algorithms, national algorithm standards including Korean SEED and Japanese Camelia, as well as purpose-built customer algorithms.
Samson Manuel, COO of TVSNet Technologies Ltd – India, said: “We see a great demand for Layer-2 encryption devices with the growth in on-line transactions including BFSI, Government and Defence verticals to enhance confidentiality, integrity & authenticity of data exchange.
“The offerings from Senetas fully complement our existing security solution offerings. We are happy to be associated with Senetas a world leader in providing network encryption hardware,” Mr Manuel said.
TVSNet Technologies, with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai , Kolkatta and Hyderabad is a highly respected name in the Enterprise Networking and Info security market. Over a long time TVSNet has carved a niche for itself in providing innovative security solutions. It is a preferred system integrator with more than 350 active customers and has extensive experience in design, Implementation and managing many prestigious infrastructure projects including Bombay Stock Exchange, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, plus both Bangalore and Hyderabad International airports.
Senetas Targets CCTV for encryption, seeks international partners
Senetas is seeking partners to tackle a new vertical market for encryption of closed circuit television using its high speed CypherNet technology.
Senetas CEO, John DuBois said the company had identified CCTV as the latest application that requires encryption to maintain necessary levels of data security.
Increasingly used for surveillance in areas that need monitoring such as airports, military installations, banks, railway stations and entertainment precincts, multiple CCTV cameras are being used to transmit images over high speed networks to remote monitoring centres as part of comprehensive remote video surveillance systems.
But with the advent of Gigabit Ethernet technology promising to change the way the industry uses networked cameras, Mr DuBois said CCTV technology now requires high speed network encryption, rather than the much slower IPSec internet links.
“Now that ‘GigE vision’ – developed by a group of about 50 companies – is the interface standard for networking high performance industrial cameras across Ethernet, the industry needs to ensure it can secure data from intrusion or alteration as it is transmitted,” Mr DuBois said.
He said the rapid development of high definition networked CCTV cameras (which produce signals at resolutions of 1920*1080 pixels) provided a challenge to ensure that there was sufficient bandwidth available to maintain the quality of the transmitted images.
The nature of the surveillance requires that the transmitted images be sent with full confidentiality to prevent readily available copper or optical taps eavesdropping on sensitive information such as that from military bases or airports. Encrypting the transmitted video signal provides the necessary privacy protection, however the challenge lies in choosing an encryption solution that will not impact on the network performance and still allows sufficient bandwidth to retain image quality.
“Practical experience has shown that encryption technologies such as IPSec are not ideally suited to encrypting video images due to the detrimental impact on performance inherent in the standard,” Mr DuBois said.
“A preferred approach is to adopt encryption technologies such as Senetas Layer 2 Ethernet encryption, which provides full line-rate encryption up to 10Gbps with low fixed latencies and no impact on the transmitted video quality, even for the latest generation HD cameras.
With more than a decade of experience in managing the network encryption needs of some of the world’s most secure government and commercial networks, Mr DuBois said, “Senetas is ideally positioned to apply its globally-accredited CypherNet technology to CCTV and we’re actively looking for partnering opportunities in the sector,” he said.
Mr DuBois said CCTV was already a multi-million dollar market in Australia, “a market which is growing to meet increasing threat and terrorism scenarios”, adding that it presented Senetas with “an untapped opportunity to provide absolutely essential high speed network encryption to ensure the integrity of live video security footage”.
