Information Assurance just got easier

As a message-oriented cloud middleware solution, Linxter provides secure, assured information delivery, also known as information assurance. But what does that mean? Well, the US government defines information assurances as “Measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.”

Those keywords are the five pillars of information assurance:

• Confidentiality - Confidential information must only be accessed, used, copied, or disclosed by users who have been authorized, and only when there is a genuine need.
• Integrity - Integrity means data cannot be created, changed, or deleted without proper authorization. It also means that data stored in one part of a database system is in agreement with other related data stored in another part of the database system (or another system).
• Authenticity - Authenticity is necessary to ensure that the users or objects (like documents) are genuine (they have not been forged or fabricated).
• Availability - Availability means that the information, the computing systems used to process the information, and the security controls used to protect the information are all available and functioning correctly when the information is needed.
• Non-repudiation - Non-repudiation implies that one party of a transaction cannot deny having received a transaction nor can the other party deny having sent a transaction.

In fact, the National Security Agency has a division solely focused on the issues of information assurance, and is overseeing the Global Information Grid (GIG), one the largest information assurance projects in history. The GIG is the “globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating, and managing information on demand to warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel.”

Information assurance is playing a critical role in the development of the Smart Grid too. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), “Devices such as wind turbines, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and solar arrays are not part of the Smart Grid. Rather, the Smart Grid encompasses the technology that enables us to integrate, interface with and intelligently control these innovations and others.”

Most developers probably do not think much about information assurance capabilities, until they work on a project which requires it. As technology moves to the cloud and discrete data is made more accessible, the importance of information assurance becomes more apparent. The recent outage of the increasingly popular social media service Twitter stung numerous innovative developers who had ventured out and created collaborative applications using that service. If data loss is not acceptable, it is important to pick the right tool for the job. Traditional message-oriented middleware solutions can provide that functionality; however, the complexity and cost associated with properly implementing them often constrains adoption to only the most mission critical solutions.

Cloud middleware firms are playing a key role in bringing information assurance to a new generation of innovative developers. The cloud services operating model reduces complexity and makes it easier for firms to bring solutions for consumers, businesses and government to market.

If you are trying to bring a solution to market, and secure, assured information delivery is a requirement, Linxter takes care of all of the information assurance communication plumbing issues for you. Whether your project is for consumers or businesses, or requires engineers with a security clearance, we can help.