Nexor and Interactive Extend Support for the MIP Community at CWID

Nexor, a provider of security solutions to meet the information assurance needs of the military and government sectors, successfully supported leading Romanian systems integrator, Interactive Systems and Business Consulting, at CWID 2008 in Lillehammer, Norway. A demonstration and interoperability trial of military message handling was extended to include an enhanced version of Nexor Defender for Outlook able to generate and transfer Multilateral Interoperability Programme (MIP) compliant messages.

MIP is one example of a growing number of communities that need to share information securely and need to overcome the problems of each community using different approaches, different software and different security policies. Now encompassing participants from across the world, the MIP community has defined a security policy that extends traditional Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP) by adding criteria to each message, which allow applications to determine the classification of the information and its priority.

Renowned for its specialisation in interoperability, Nexor has built a solution that offers flexibility to the individual communities by allowing them to interwork in a more secure manner whilst maintaining their own specialist security needs. Nexor Defender for Outlook now includes new MIP specific properties, conformant to the MIP MEM E-SMTP specifications, which are sent to the recipient in such a way that the messaging system itself can see and act on them as well as the recipient user or application.

The Nexor solution is fully extensible; arbitrary Microsoft (MAPI) properties may be mapped to arbitrary SMTP header extensions. This means that any property generated in Microsoft Outlook may be mapped to any property in an SMTP header and vice versa. One of the benefits of the Nexor approach is that interworking is therefore possible with a number of different vendors’ Microsoft Outlook security plug-ins.

Using the Nexor approach, it is also possible to build solutions where MIP messages may be passed through a mailguard, such as the Nexor Sentinel, and checked prior to submission between domains, thus enabling more secure solution architectures to be adopted.

The MIP-MEM demonstration formed part of a wider trial conducted by Interactive with the sponsorship of the Romanian Ministry of Defence J6. Interactive SBC presented a Battalion Integrated Communication and Information System (SICIB) to show interoperability with coalition C2 information systems using MIP-MEM and AdatP-3 for battalion and lower echelons and STANAG 4406, MIP-MEM and MIP-DEM for higher echelons. The trial achieved a successful assessment, meeting all three NATO CWID objectives:

• To support NRF C41 interoperability testing and validation
• To support NATO Network Enabled Capability
• To strengthen interoperability between current and potential force contributors to NATO and Coalition Operations

Interactive SBC integrated its own AdatP-3 capability, BC2A Voiajor®, with a complete Nexor Military Message Handling System (MMHS) compliant to STANAG 4406. Data exchange between SICIB and other C2IS DEM/MEM based systems was achieved with BC2A Cinetic® and BC2A Voiajor®. Messaging support for tactical and low bandwidth to HF radios was provided via STANAG 4406 Annex E using Nexor Vanguard. Trial partners were Spain for MMHS and Poland for MIP.

About NATO CWID:

The NATO Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) is an annual NATO Military Committee approved event designed to bring about continuous improvement in interoperability for the Alliance. NATO and Partner nations sponsor interoperability trials which focus primarily on testing and improving the interoperability of NATO and national C4I systems, with particular emphasis on those that would be deployed within a NATO Response Force or Combined Joint Task Force. In addition to bilateral technical testing, NATO CWID provides a venue to conduct technical testing of fielded, developmental and experimental systems in the context of a coalition scenario.

About MIP:

“The aim of the MIP is to achieve international interoperability of Command and Control Information Systems (C2IS) at all levels from corps to the lowest appropriate level, in order to support multinational, combined and joint operations and the advancement of digitisation in the international arena, including NATO”. For further information see the ATCCIS_MIP website.

About Interactive SBC:

Interactive Systems and Business Consulting (Interactive SBC) is a leading Romanian capability provider of Communications & Information Systems for the Defence and Homeland Security Market. In many years of activity with an impressive list of customers, Interactive SBC built an excellent reputation for innovation, quality and interoperability, implementing the most challenging projects. The Company’s agility is supported by an unparalleled engineering force and management that encourages creative thinking, anticipation and the ability to respond fast to customer requirements.

About Nexor:

Based in Nottingham, UK, Nexor focuses exclusively on the provision of superior security solutions to meet the demanding information assurance needs of defence and government customers worldwide. Founded in 1990, the company’s technology is widely used in secure messaging and information assurance systems where reliability and interoperability are fundamental. Nexor offers a range of consultancy, implementation and training services.

For further information, please info [at] nexor [dot] com (subject: Nexor%20Press%20Release) (contact Humphrey Browning) at Nexor and Laurentiu NICA at Interactive SBC.