The KOV-14 Fortezza Plus is a US

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

-approved

PC card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and devel ...

which provides

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

functions and key storage to the

Secure Terminal Equipment Secure Terminal Equipment (STE) is the U.S. government's current (), encrypted telephone communications system for wired or "landline" communications. STE is designed to use ISDN telephone lines which offer higher speeds of up to 128 kbit/s ...

and other devices. It is a

tamper-resistant Tamperproofing, conceptually, is a methodology used to hinder, deter or detect unauthorised access to a device or circumvention of a security system. Since any device or system can be foiled by a person with sufficient knowledge, equipment, and ti ...

module based on the

Mykotronx SafeNet, Inc. was an information security company based in Belcamp, Maryland, United States, which was acquired in August 2014 by the French security company Gemalto. Gemalto was, in turn, acquired by Thales Group in 2019. The former SafeNet' ...

Krypton chip, including all of the cryptographic functionality of the original

Fortezza Fortezza is an information security system that uses the Fortezza Crypto Card, a PC Card-based security token. It was developed for the U.S. government's Clipper chip project and has been used by the U.S. Government in various applications. E ...

card plus the Type 1 algorithms/protocols BATON and Firefly, the SDNS signature algorithm, and the

STU-III STU-III (Secure Telephone Unit - third generation) is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies. STU-III desk units look much like typical office telephone ...

protocol. It was developed by Mykotronx as part of the NSA's MISSI program. As of 2008, the KOV-14 is beginning to be phased out and replaced by the backwards compatible

KSV-21 The KSV-21 Enhanced Crypto Card is a US National Security Agency-approved PC card that provides Type 1 encryption functions and key storage to the STE secure telephones and other devices. The KSV-21 was originally built by SafeNet but has si ...

PC card.

References

{{crypto-stub National Security Agency encryption devices