RMIT, Tide, AWS project accelerates new cyber tech

Aussie tech breakthrough to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks

RMIT have announced the tremendous fruits of our 3 year collaboration. Most recently culminating in the successful demonstration of Tide’s groundbreaking tech, dubbed by researchers “Ineffable Cryptography”, in protecting critical infrastructure. This outcome was made possible thanks to the generous support of AWS and RMIT’s Cloud Supercomputing Hub (RACE) alongside infrastructure and managed service providers including Smart business Services and Smile IT.

A snapshot

1. Scientific validation of Tide's core technology, Ineffable Cryptography, new mathematical models that allow the generation of secret keys that remains secret in perpetuity, from inception through to operation.
2. The "productization" of that science into a developer tool that allows platform developers to secure data and systems with keys no-one will ever hold. Keys you can't steal, lose or misuse, and 
3. Finally, successfully field testing that capability in an access control system for critical infrastructure with industry partners.

Ineffable Cryptography

Most recently described by tech journalist Michael Irving as tech that "treats keys like the Colonel's secret recipe”, Ineffable Cryptography is a science that allows for keys to be generated and operated in secret across a decentralized network, so that use of those keys are not exploited for nefarious usage. For the first time ever, it removes the need for blind trust in any individual, company or server with the keys to the kingdom.

The mammoth effort in scientifically validating the technology’s bold security claims involved RMIT’s own Chief Information Security Officer, top mathematicians and cybersecurity experts in the School of Science and Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation.

The applications enabled by this technology go well beyond cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and are being field tested in securing identities, health information, financial systems, and privacy in AI applications.

KeyleSSH - Applying Ineffable Cryptography to Secure Critical Infrastructure

As daily breaches in critical infrastructure soar globally, governments are desperately seeking solutions. Amidst dire warnings from the Australian Signals Directorate and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre about our failing infrastructure security in a hostile cyber landscape, a ray of hope emerges to turn the tide in favour of the defenders.

Most recently, a select group of cybersecurity students, supported by the RMIT Cloud Innovation Centre and RMIT’s AWS Cloud Supercomputing Hub (RACE), worked with industry partners to help them test the technology and prove its ability to solve critical infrastructure security challenges in ways that weren’t previously possible.  

RACE Director Dr Robert Shen said the project, ‘KeyleSSH’, focused on integrating the Tide technology with SSH – a method for remote infrastructure management – then testing it with multiple industry partners. 

“The resulting project moves from the theoretical to the commercial and elevates the security benefits beyond key-base access control, without the complexity and cost,”
Shen said.  

The solution has been met with enthusiasm by managed service providers involved in the trial, including Australian company Smart Building Services (SBS) Digital, which offers smart metering systems to industrial complexes. 

The company’s Chief Technology Officer, Jonathan Spinks, said that in the face of growing geopolitical complexities, it was imperative that entities responsible for servicing vital infrastructure such as airports and utilities could demonstrate they are beyond reproach.

“Integrating Tide’s decentralized solution would ensure that access controls in SBS Digital’s Netstream utility platform are virtually immune to tampering,”
Spinks said.  

AWS, the world’s biggest cloud infrastructure provider, joined forces with RMIT to create the Cloud Supercomputing Hub. They’re supporting the project with expertise and cloud infrastructure to host the decentralized network and the compute power used to test the resilience of the prototype under conditions simulating a state sponsored attack.

Full Announcement Here

GitHub Here

Read more about Ineffable Cryptography Here