RigNet has teamed up with CACI International (CACI) on CACI’s SteelBox Secure Voice and Text App for government users.
RigNet will provide telecommunications inter-connectivity throughout the United States, increasing the utility and convenience to government entities.
“RigNet has been providing highly secure, highly reliable telecommunications to customers for four decades,” commented retired rear admiral Jamie Barnett, RigNet’s Senior Vice President for Government Services.
“This is another strategic venture into the government sector, and we are delighted to be working with CACI and BlackBerry on SteelBox connectivity.”
Authorised users can simply download the secure app onto an existing government cell phone via the app store or via a government-authorized Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution.
This software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution is convenient to the user and results in significant savings to the government by eliminating the lifecycle costs of acquiring, delivering, and maintaining government-owned hardware and software.
“SteelBox has already opened new lines of secure communications for government agencies at a time when that capability is more crucial than ever,” according to Dab Kern, CACI’s Senior Vice President for Capabilities & Technology Integration.
“We are pleased to partner with RigNet to continue expanding SteelBox’s secure communications capabilities.”
SteelBox
CACI partnered with Microsoft Azure and BlackBerry to deliver a government cloud-hosted, FedRAMP-certified, secure mobile tenant environment.
Authorised users simply download the SteelBox secure app directly from the app store or have it sent to their device via a government-authorised Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution. Once authenticated, the SteelBox app allows users to make encrypted phone calls and send encrypted messages securely and conveniently.
The SteelBox servers are hosted in a multi-tenant Microsoft Azure Government Cloud, FedRAMP High, Impact Level 4 environment. The secure servers act as “traffic cops” to route incoming calls and messages to and from end-user smartphones and provides encryption for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
The SteelBox app will not run on rooted or jailbroken mobile devices. Once the secure activation process has been performed, SteelBox leverages the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) encryption standard to ensure that each call and message is encrypted with unique AES-256, P-384 elliptic-curve crypto keys. A unique set of keys is established each time a call or message is sent.
Federal CIOs and records management officials can meet Federal Records Act (FRA) requirements for mobile messaging and cell phone metadata without having to engage cellular service providers. Call and message data is archived on a regular basis, and the actual content of messages can be encrypted and archived.
All archiving is managed by U.S. Government administrators, in accordance with FRA requirements.
Each government agency has its own tenant in the SteelBox cloud environment. When the government tenant administrator sets up the agency’s unique tenant, the Records Act Compliance module is activated.
The government administrator establishes a unique crypto key to encrypt the government message content being recorded for compliance. Only the government administrator for that unique department, command, or agency and/or the records management designee have access to this crypto key.
BlackBerry SecuSuite
A core component of the SteelBox solution is the BlackBerry SecuSUITE software. The SecuSUITE software was developed to meet strict federal security standards and holds multiple certifications, including:
SecuSUITE Client Protection Profiles
- Application Software – Protection Profile for Application Software
- VoIP: Extended Package for Voice and Video over IP (VVoIP)
- Functional Package for TLS, March 2019
SecuGATE-Related Protection Profiles
- Network Device – Collaborative Protection Profile for Network Devices, March 11, 2019
- SIP Server – Enterprise Session Controller (ESC), October 25, 2016 (ESCEP10)
National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) Compliance
BlackBerry SecuSuite is approved by CSfC program under NSA specifications, complies with CNSA cryptography requirements and supports FIPS 140-2-validated keystore.
