Phison and Cigent Partnership for Self-Defending SSDs

Phison Electronics Corp. and Cigent Technology, Inc. unveiled design details behind the partnership that has delivered a line of self-defending storage devices with cybersecurity built into the firmware itself to protect vs. ransomware, data theft and malicious insider theft.

The company’s NAND flash solutions support applications including embedded, consumer, enterprise and automotive. The firm’s Crypto-SSD is a line of TCG enabled Self-Encrypting Drives that are designed to pass FIPS 140-3 Level 2 certification. The company is committed to data security which helps to protect business and government users vs. loss or theft. The collaboration between the 2 firms expands the E12DC Crypto-SSD security architecture to add additional compute capabilities, attack detectors and sensors directly on the drive. Together with Cigent, Phison has created a product that raises the bar of data security.

Cigent Secure SSD drives, originally developed for US government and military use, are the first commercially available cyber-secure SSDs. K2 and Denali Secure SSDs integrate multi-patented firmware-based cyber security features into the company‘s PCIe NVMe controller firmware. This firmware integration places active protection as close to the data as possible – inside the storage device and beneath the software, BIOS, and the OS layers. These Secure SSDs detect and repel ransomware attacks, automatically encrypt and hide sensitive files when a threat is detected and include ‘safe rooms’ that makes data fully invisible to any attacker.

“As the world’s first and only self-defending solid-state storage devices, the Cigent Secure SSD family is a true breakthrough that challenges conventional thinking about data security,” said Michael Wu, president and GM, Phison Electronics US. “Combining Cigent’s pioneering development of software and firmware-based security solutions with Phison’s leading expertise in providing highly customized secure SSD platforms ensures end-users can trust that their data remains fully available and free from the effects of ransomware or other malicious intrusions.“

“The Cigent Secure SSD product family was developed by Cigent’s team of experts in data recovery and cybersecurity working in close cooperation with the cutting-edge storage experts at Phison. This combined team developed holistic data protection solutions with security built-in, making it virtually impossible for critical data and applications to be accessed from unauthorized sources,” said Greg Scasny, CTO, Cigent. “Software-only security is often easily bypassed, but our multi-patented, multi-layered self-defending storage is able to make critical data completely inaccessible and literally invisible to adversaries, giving customers peace of mind that their sensitive data and digital assets are safely stored and protected.“

Denali and K2 combine embedded firmware features such as ransomware detection and response working in conjunction with Cigent’s D³E for Windows-based agent to protect data at all times. D³E adds a layer of Zero Trust multi-factor authentication to any file, protecting data from any threat.

When the company‘s E12DC Crypto-SSD is paired with paired D³E, the collaborative cybersecurity solution relies on ML, deception detection, and a family of threat sensors to identify security anomalies and actively respond with integrated data defense for industry-leading protection. Data can be stored in threat-aware safe rooms that cease to exist from the OS’s point of view during an attempt to ransom or steal data. Cigent’s Dual Mode feature allows for private/secure and non-private storage partitions that are independent and invisible to one another and adversaries.

Cigent’s K2 Secure SSD and D³E software are both available. The Denali Secure SSD with added ML-based data protection will be available in Summer 2021.

Drives can be installed as primary internal Windows PC storage, as secondary internal storage (such as in a desktop tower), or as external USB-connected media.