Data’s one-way street
In IBM Corp.”™s backyard, mention the name of any software company and one is likely to elicit a “who?”
Describe Owl Computing Technologies Inc.”™s “dual diode” and the next response you might get is “huh?”
In the U.S. government”™s most secretive agencies, however, the Ridgefield company is apparently opening eyes with its one-way network data cards.
You read that right ”“ one way.
Owl licenses its technology from Sandia National Laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons think tank with facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif.
Given its research focus, Sandia has the world”™s most sophisticated computer-security programs in place, but still was worried about hackers breaking into its most sensitive data files.
To eliminate any possibility of a breach, the lab essentially stranded on a digital island the computers that contain its most sensitive data. Those computers still need to be fed information, however, which Sandia accomplished by loading data onto discs and physically walking the discs over to classified computers for upload.
With Sandia”™s “sneaker net” consuming time, disks and shoe-sole rubber, a California staffer working on nuclear-arms monitoring programs decided there had to be a better way.
The light bulb that flashed in Curt Nilsen”™s mind was to create pairs of circuit boards; one equipped with a laser to send signals, the other equipped only with a photo detector to receive them. Installed between computers, the computer cards would only be able to send data one way.
“Unless your photodetector turns itself into a light bulb, you”™re ensured the data won’t go the other way,” Nilsen told a Sandia newsletter in 2002. “It is literally 100 percent one way.”
If counterintuitive to a generation used to the “send-receive” function on e-mail programs, it is a concept nevertheless that is clearly finding favor with the Feds. Owl revenue was $6 million last year, with customers including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, a Bethesda, Md., agency that directs the capture of images for the federal government.
In time, founder Ron Mraz believes large corporations will swoop in on Owl”™s technology, as well, as a way to comply with government regulations requiring digital storage of documents like health records and e-mails tamper-proof repositories. One obvious potential candidate for the technology is nuclear plants, but financial giants and health-care companies also represent prospective areas of focus.
“This makes sense when you are protecting data that is very critical,” Mraz said. “If that data gets out, it is game over.”
Previously, Mraz was employed with supercomputer research at IBM Corp.”™s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, N.Y. Sandia tracked him down for help with advanced network protocols, and in 1998 Mraz obtained an exclusive commercial license to the technology and founded Owl.
He wanted the word “eagle” in the name, in deference to his expected federal customer base, but the Owl moniker has grown on him.
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“Ever watchful,” Mraz explained.
The concept of a unidirectional network has been around since at least the 1960s, but Owl”™s rapid growth is testimony to the fact that few if any companies have built a system capable of accommodating the massive floods of data that large organizations handle at any given moment.
If Nilsen”™s idea provided the glint in Owl”™s eye, Mraz and Owl”™s chief developer Jim Hope (a Wesleyan University graduate who is likewise a veteran of IBM”™s Watson Center) “ruggedized” the concept by adding error-checking capabilities and big bandwidth critical to modern networks.
One threat Owl”™s technology is not designed to stop is the remote possibility of a hacker tapping into the one-way network to steer a virus into a classified computer. Owl is planning additional capabilities to enhance its prospects for both government and commercial sales, said Dave Graham, Owl”™s vice president who holds a minority stake in the company. He did not provide specifics.
“Is this company a one-trick pony?” Graham said. “The answer is no.”
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