Columbia, MD – May 11, 2021 – Owl Cyber Defense Solutions (“Owl”), the global market leader in cross domain and network security solutions, today announced the release of IXD – a groundbreaking new cross domain solution developed specifically for critical infrastructure network cybersecurity. This innovative development represents a revolutionary milestone in protecting the networks of critical infrastructure organizations around the world, including power generation, oil and gas, transmission and distribution, water / wastewater, and more.
“Firewalls and data diodes have their place, but in the face of technological imperatives like OT/IT convergence and data-driven operational intelligence, combined with increased risk from nation-state backed threats, they’re simply not good enough,” said Ken Walker, CTO of Owl. “IXD completely transcends the traditional OT security paradigm with content inspection beyond next-generation firewalls, the hardware-enforced segmentation of data diodes, and the advanced data filtering engine of a software guard all in one powerful device.”
As the pinnacle of boundary security devices, a cross domain solution (CDS) is a software and hardware information security system which controls data transfers by enforcing an organization’s security policies to monitor, restrict, and/or filter the flow of information between trusted and untrusted domains. In the U.S., these devices typically undergo a rigorous security assessment and certification process through the U.S. government, and the data filtering engine within IXD has been through the U.S. certification process for Foreign Military Sales. Until now, certified CDS technologies were exclusively available to the defense and intelligence communities. With IXD, Owl has made this elite technology available to the global industrial market.
IXD is designed to transfer and filter multiple protocols and data types either unidirectionally or bidirectionally. Available with support for many common industrial protocols and applications, including UDP, TCP, REST/HTTPS, OSIsoft PI System, Oracle TNS, FTP/FTPS/SFTP, Syslog, and SQL Database synchronization, IXD enables critical infrastructure and industrial operators to control and filter content transferred between networks. Enforced by mandatory access controls (MAC) configurable to support their internal security policies, IXD provides high assurance and high availability far beyond next-generation firewalls. IXD also includes built-in hardware enforcement through data diodes which provides additional network segmentation benefits including protocol breaks that disrupt attack vectors that software-based firewalls simply can’t stop.
“Owl’s leadership in innovation has redefined the OT network security market, consistently developing decades beyond any competing solution in security, performance, flexibility, and ease-of-use,” said Robert Stalick, CEO of Owl. “Now we’re leading the world into the next chapter in OT security with IXD. Owl customers worldwide in power generation, oil & gas, and other critical infrastructure fields can now leverage the same transformational, fit-for-purpose CDS technology trusted to protect classified networks, state secrets, and weapons systems.”
More information on IXD is available here.
About Owl
Owl Cyber Defense cross domain, data diode, and portable media solutions provide hardened network security checkpoints for absolute threat prevention and secure data availability. Certified by the U.S. government, independent testing authorities, and international standards bodies, Owl technologies and services help to secure the network edge and enable controlled unidirectional and bidirectional data transfers. For over 20 years, clients worldwide in defense, intelligence, and infrastructure have trusted Owl’s unmatched expertise to protect networks, systems, and devices.