Mission-Stor Removable Secure SSD for Military Environments by Mercury Systems

Mercury Systems, Inc. announced the start of customer design engagements for its MISSION-Stor portable SSD with integrated security and performance-enhancing algorithms.

Though similar in size and function to a commercial USB flash drive, the company’s secure SSD has been precision-engineered to withstand the harshest military operating environments while simultaneously protecting the sensitive data from adversarial attack. This product is suited for mission management applications, where mission instructions must be securely transferred to a military platform operating in a potentially hostile threat environment

The MISSION-Stor device marries NAND flash memory with the company’s sixth generation ARMOR processor in a SWaP-optimized form factor small enough to fit in the pocket of a flight jacket. It addresses customer applications that require protection of sensitive data, up to and including the Top Secret designation. SSD devices support encryption, key purge, sanitization and self-destruct capabilities. The firm has engineered the MISSION-Stor SSD device to the standards of Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) 140-2 and the National Security Administration’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) program. The product is expected to receive FIPS 140-2 certification approved component listing for the CSfC program in 2018.

The ARMOR processor, the backbone of the company’s entire suite of secure military-grade SSD solutions, enables data at rest protection using the strength of encryption standard with 256bit keys in the XTS block cipher mode (AES-256 XTS). Whereas commercial- and industrial-grade SSD devices typically decrypt data after entering a simple ATA password, the ARMOR processor supports a range of encryption key management options, including re-play attack mitigation and isolated key fill using a DS-101 serial interface protocol developed by the NSA.

“Today, we openly invite government agencies, defense prime contractors and other valued customers to engage with us as we field our new MISSION-Stor device,” said Iain Mackie, VP and GM, microelectronics secure solutions group, Mercury. “As the preeminent commercial supplier of secure military-grade SSD devices, our new MISSION-Stor product sets the bar for removable storage with integrated security. Our Phoenix Advanced Microelectronics Center is proud to continue designing and manufacturing innovative security solutions purpose-built for government agencies and our military forces.“

The MISSION-Stor device is available with either a NVMe or a SATA interface.

Additionally, users can configure the device to operate in either an extended-life or extended-capacity mode based on mission requirements. Extended-capacity mode enables approximately 1.5TB of host-accessible storage, while extended-life mode enables enhanced data endurance – up to 7.7PB of total data written – with a maximum host-accessible storage capacity of 512GB.

The MISSION-Stor product, and all of the company’s digital microelectronics solutions, are manufactured in the firm’s ‘Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA)’ – certified Advanced Microelectronics Center in Phoenix, AZ. The company protects its design and manufacturing records with an cybersecurity program based on the Center for Internet Security (CIS) critical security controls. Furthermore, critical components are sourced from a managed supply chain with manufacturing sites located in the United States.

The company’s application engineering team frequently assists customers seeking to deploy security solutions for complex applications.