Product specifications

65
For more information and our online store, visit www.blackbox.fi.
The Challenge:
As the need for security has grown, Black Box has made it a priority to address
the concerns of customers for whom security is the first priority. Whether it’s
biometric products or remote monitoring equipment, we have striven to stay
at the forefront of secure product development.
Some of our biggest customers have been military and governmental security
officers who have brought their needs to our attention. (Due to the confidential
nature of their posts, we are unable to identify them by name.) In the realm of
KVM switching, developing a truly secure switch has been Black Box’s goal for
some time now. With the line of ServSwitch
™
Secure KVM Switches with USB,
we are finally able to bring to the market products that meet and exceed security
needs at the local, state, and federal levels.
Security officers know that Black Box
is the place to turn to meet their
secure switching needs.
The Solution:
The KVM switching technology concerns
of the security market are fairly
straightforward. They are looking for
USB keyboard and mouse support,
USB CAC reader support, digital video
support, and TEMPEST and Common
Criteria Evaluation Assurance (EAL)
certification. Switches that have been
previously available either do not meet
the correct security criteria or do not
perform well enough to attach to
mission critical equipment.
Most of the available technology in
the market was security-tested based
on what was commercially available.
Exceptions had been made both on
security accreditation and overall quality.
Black Box has engineered KVM switches
specifically for this market. They pass
all security criteria testing and are of
high quality.
According to one of our customers who
is familiar with security issues, Black Box
switches provide the highest level of
isolation available in a desktop switch.
Some of his switches are a few years old,
and others he has had to retire due only
to the fact that the computer technology
has developed (into USB and DVI
capabilities, for example). Fortunately,
Black Box has been able to develop
secure switches with DVI capabilities
for this client.
His current dependence on the previous
line of ServSwitch Secure products is
being augmented with a switch that
includes a port for a common access card
(CAC) reader — the SWx009A-USB-EAL
series, with USB and VGA. These two-
and four-port switches have undergone
TEMPEST and EAL2+ testing to make
them the most secure switches available.
TEMPEST is vital for areas where
physical security is either not possible
or limited. Electronic eavesdropping is
a huge problem when dealing with
sensitive data and user credentials.
By replicating common attack methods,
security personnel have found them
to be effective for gaining sensitive
information.
When equipment is on a vehicle or
deployed in an active zone, use of
TEMPEST-rated equipment is a must
when sensitive data is involved. It can
be a user’s only line of protection.
This design is used primarily to protect
data between various security levels of
networks. EAL2+ is typically used in
environments where multiple physical
security layers are already in place.
In military and government IT setups,
the most common segregation between
secure and non-secure networks is RED/
BLACK: the separation between
non-classified Internet protocol router
networks (NIPRNet) and secret Internet
protocol router networks (SIPRNet). This
level of segregation applies to anyone
who has secret security clearance and
also works on the public Internet. He or
she would be working on two computers
with different network credentials.
A security officer’s concern would be
that data signals are present as crosstalk
and can be recovered on the non-secure
workstation, thereby violating security
barriers. Black Box secure switches
prevent this.
Secure Switching
Military
Black Box Case Studies: