EADS DS develops unique web security tool

EADS Defence & Security (EADS DS) has launched a revolutionary new cryptographic technology, Ectocryp, which it claims will provide governments and industry with the highest levels of communications security over the Internet. The company has beaten competitors from around the world to devise a cryptographic product range with different levels of security for government and industry.

Cryptographic experts and scientists at the EADS DS base in Newport, South Wales spent five years developing this technology, which uses more than one million lines of certified code. Ectocryp has many applications, but some of the earliest uses will be in the continuing battle against terror and organised crime.

Until now, sensitive data used by government would have to be sent over stand-alone networks, which are slow, costly to set up and maintain, and vulnerable to hacking. Ectocryp enables governments to use existing networks and the Internet securely. This technology can work through any Internet connection, and is said to be more secure, cheaper, and hundreds of times faster than existing systems.

Ectocryp is meant to allow government departments to transmit top secret information over the public Internet securely. For example, it could be used in undercover surveillance operations, where field agents have not had access to secure networks so far. This technology could also allow secure live video streaming over the Internet, which could previously be done only via expensive dedicated lines with data transfer rates below real-time needs.

EADS DS has previously supplied cryptographic products and services to a number of programmes. These include the SkyNet 5 project that allows the armed forces to communicate securely with each other and other NATO forces, and the Bowman Programme, the net radio used by the military in the field.