Interview with the CEO of Crypto
28 February 2007
How can you define the growth of Crypto in the field of information technology?
Information security has become an extremely important topic in information technology nowadays, and since information technology itself plays a more and more important role in every modern organisation, information security is and will further be one of the most important topics to take care of in every governmental and non-governmental organisation.
What is the latest development that Crypto has introduced for security solutions and encryption?
We are actually in the excellent position of having added a number of new products to our already broad range of solutions. The 1GB/s Ethernet encryption has been there for more than three years, and now we have pushed the wire speed up to 10GB/s in Ethernet networks. For IP-based networks the IP VPN encryption HC-7825 enterprise (version) is the upper range VPN solution.
In the field of radio communications we added two new solutions to our portfolio: a very versatile voice and data security system called MultiCom radio encryption HC-2650, and our powerful TETRA security solution. Last but not least, we added two new secure messaging systems to our product range, one covering defence applications and one especially designed for ministerial and diplomatic information exchange.
Can you please elaborate on the Ethernet protocol, and how this is related to security?
The Ethernet protocol has been used in data networks since a very long time. It was and it is the widely chosen protocol for local area networks. Today however it has also found its way into wide area networks, where its small protocol overhead allows for efficient network designs. Therefore many high-bandwidth connections of today are using the Ethernet protocol for efficiency reasons. Crypto has designed security solutions for this protocol for up to 10GB/s, offering wire-speed performance with a very short latency.
What products did you offer for communications via satellite?
For a certain time frame-relay has been the preferred protocol due to its lower overhead compared with other protocols and the frame-relay encryption HC-7110 is our security solution for this design. Recently however the IP protocol has started being chosen more often and in this case the IP VPN encryption HC-7805 small office (version) and IP VPN encryption HC-7825 Enterprise (version) are the solutions to opt for. Obviously, with many services using IP as basis, and satellite bandwidth being offered at a lower price, certain users preferred easy interoperability versus higher efficiency.
Did you sign new contracts with Arab countries for the procurement of new products?
Yes, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers in Arab countries for this honour.
Do you provide training for all your customers within the Crypto academy, and under what conditions?
We see training and education as a very important part of our solution package. The know-how of the system managers and users ensure a continuous perfect functioning of the security systems. Most of our courses are tailor-made to the needs and skills of our customers. They are held in Switzerland and given in different languages.
