encrypted storage device for classified information KOBRA Drive / KOBRA Stick

Project Information

ESDCI KOBRA

Grant agreement ID: 878035

DOI

10.3030/878035

Project closed

EC signature date 30 August 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

DIGITTRADE GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ESDCI KOBRA (encrypted storage device for classified information KOBRA Drive / KOBRA Stick)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"In recent years, the growth of hacker and cyber-attacks has significantly increased. As a result of growing threats European Commission, European Council and European Parliament decided to step up their cyber security efforts by reinforcing the new EU cyber security law. Government agency and companies’ process data containing sensitive or confidential information. This information may only be stored on authorized media. Currently, there are no external data carriers in the EU or worldwide, which are approved by the BSI being suitable for clearance level such VS-NfD (Verschlusssache - Nur für den Dienstgebrauch - classified information for official use) or higher level of confidentiality.

There are already a few manufacturers of encrypted USB-Sticks and encrypted hard disks on the market. The data carriers of these manufacturers are however not suitable for the storage of sensitive data with the confidential levels such as VS-NfD or higher. The objective of this project was to solve this task and to provide authorities in Germany and the EU with secure data carriers with the above mentioned features.

DIGITTRADE GmbH from Teutschenthal is a member of the Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien e.V. (Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media). (BITKOM), in the Federal association IT security registered association. (TeleTrusT) and the German Society for Defense Technology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Wehrtechnik e.V.). (DWT). The company is also a holder of the trust mark ""IT Security made in Germany"".

The Kobra VS Devices contribute to the digital sovereignty of the EU in the area of the secure data storage as the most components are developed and produced in the EU with a strong vertical range of manufacturing. Furthermore they support the idea of Green IT, by revolutionize several resource intensive use cases with new smart solution that reduces the ecological foot print to a minimum. These use cases are among other secure one-way data transfer between different security domains, secure deletion of data on the storage media and secure physical data transportation."

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

DIGITTRADE has implemented the feasibility study to define and further specify the scale-up and business potential and ensure a successful pre-commercialisation phase supported by the EIC Accelerator Pilot. Therefore, the project was subdivided into three major tasks, conducted by the DIGITTRADE Technical Feasibility Assessment (task 1), Commercial Feasibility Assessment (task 2) and Financial Feasibility Assessment (task 3), respectively. On the technical side, the focus was put on verifying the properties according to the new BSI accreditation standard and the assessment of challenges of large-scale production with industry partners. Regarding the commercialisation strategy a detailed market study, including size, customer segments and competitors was implemented, an expansion strategy, including revenue models and pricing strategies was set-up as well as assumptions of production costs were verified. The management was dedicated to IP strategy, risks assessment, preparations of BSI accreditation and delivery of the feasibility report. In the following, the results are aggregated and presented in brief.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

With the ability to produce on a large scale, sufficient amount of close-to-market pilot versions can be produced for in-depth user and performance tests. This will enable the company to evaluate the customer benefits in detail and prepare for the dissemination and commercialisation campaigns. With the innovative and disruptive technology DIGITTRADE will create a significant growth, rapidly scale up and, according to its vision, revolutionise the common use of encrypted storage devices by setting a new data security standard worldwide ensuring so far unreached classification levels (VS-NfD and higher) due to its encryption technology.

Kobra VS data storage devices