WASHINGTON — TrustPoint, a startup developing a next-generation global navigation satellite system, announced Dec. 18 it chosen SpiderOak to offer cybersecurity for its future network.
TrustPoint, based in Dulles, Virginia, plans to deploy a constellation of small satellites to deliver positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services for business and national security applications.
Chris DeMay, founder and chief operating officer of TrustPoint, said the corporate chosen SpiderOak’s OrbitSecure software to make sure “cybersecurity, mission resilience and data reliability.”
The corporate uses a so-called zero-trust architecture where network users by default aren’t trusted and special keys are required to access encrypted data. OrbitSecure also uses blockchain for data transactions so every modification made to the ledger is time stamped and signed.
Space, ground, user equipment
The OrbitSecure software will probably be used across the space, ground and user segments, the corporate said.
TrustPoint plans to begin offering PNT services in a number of years because it builds out its constellation. It launched two micro-satellites in 2023 to begin demonstrating the technology. Goal customers include the U.S. government and business industries in emerging sectors like drone delivery, self-driving cars, urban air mobility and augmented reality.
The agreement includes the usage of the OrbitSecure 2.0 release, scheduled for 2025, which provides additional protection for PNT signals, SpiderOak said. It is a “proprietary authentication system to counter spoofing,” the act of intentionally transmitting fake navigation satellite signals to deceive a receiver about its position, navigation or timing.
Charles Beames, SpiderOak’s executive chairman, said TrustPoint is “the primary of the brand new generation of economic constellations to acknowledge the worth of offering an end to finish, software only, cybersecurity service.”
The OrbitSecure software stack, he said, “makes our customers’ data inaccessible to anyone without crypto keys, because we protect each data record on any network individually through a distributed ledger.”
“We at all times assume all networks have been or will probably be compromised by essentially the most highly evolved threats,” Beames said. “By protecting at the information record level, our customers can make certain that the information is secure and its provenance verified.”