Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has partnered with Tenix America, Inc., to provide an information management system able to route vital information between networks operating at different security levels. Using integrated technology from both companies, the system will allow users to share and manage the flow of information between networks while protecting the integrity of each network domain.

"There is an urgent need for secure information-sharing among our national security customers," said Brian Knutsen, general manager of Boeing Mission Systems, a unit of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "Through this partnership, Boeing and Tenix will meet one of our customers' most demanding technical challenges, while potentially reducing operating costs and enhancing productivity."

The integrated Boeing solution provides access to information residing on distinct secure networks from a single server. It transfers data from a high-level security network to a lower-level security network, and vice versa. Applications include enterprise-wide storage and retrieval from multiple security levels where users routinely need access to multiple security domains to perform their mission, while increasing network productivity by preventing data storage replication.

Through a reseller agreement, Boeing will sell Tenix's Interactive Link Data Diode (ILDD) and Interactive Link Keyboard Switch (ILKS). These products allow users to share and manage the flow of information between government agencies, commercial enterprises and across security domains. ILDD, certified by the National Information Assurance Program (NIAP) at the highest level of information assurance EAL 7, and ILKS, NIAP certified at EAL 5, have all of the safeguards in place to ensure a user is constantly aware of the security domain in which he or she is working. Boeing will integrate Tenix's products with Boeing's Secure Network Server, currently being evaluated for NIAP certification.

Boeing and Tenix, the U.S. branch of Tenix Group, a leading Australian defense and technology organization, began working together in preparation for Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 2005 last year, developing the Multi-Level-Security Information Infrastructure, or MI2, technology that allows the military to control information sharing between network domains at all tactical and operational levels. MI2 received a top trial designation from the U.S. Department of Defense following last year's demonstration and was recommended by the U.S. Northern Command for further evaluation and funding.