Merdan is engaged in advanced technology work and has developed security products such as PAVESSM, SATS process, and security training course material.

¹ PAVESSM technology consists of patented a technique developed to provide assurance that the objectives of exchanging digital data, using public/semi-public, and private media, are accomplished within acceptable levels of risk as illustrated below.

The objectives or quality indicators of the interchange process are data  fidelity/accuracy, timeliness, privacy, authenticity, and non reputability. Most of the commercially available digital interchange equipment cannot assure that these objectives can be met in the hostile environment in which the system(s) operate.
 
 

The heart of PAVESSM technology is the PAVESSM operational unit, inserted between the multimedia source and modem, whose patented process can be implemented in the form of a:
 


The unit can, however be physically or functionally integrated into the multimedia source or modem.  The function of the PAVESSM operational unit is to store/use/manipulate cryptographic keys, programs, and/or data.  The PAVESSM operational unit programs may have, but are not limited to:
 
 

Cryptography Data Transmission/Reception
Digital Signature Authorization
Verification Control operations such as: Initiate/stop operations; meter/measure and control data flow.
Key Generation

The fully initialized  PAVESSM operational unit, can support security features such as:  Physical Protection: Privacy and integrity - Electronic protection featuring:  Privacy - Integrity - Authenticity - traceability - and non repudiation.

If the PAVESSM operational unit is implemented in a special purpose secure chip, ALL of the PAVESSM technology features are available via a single "PAVESSM" chip.

SATS consists of a process and a software tool set, developed by Merdan to examine in minute detail, off-the-shelf software [e.g., COTS]. The SATS process locates, bounds, and permits analysis of each and every function implemented by the code. One of the unique features of SATS is that the process efficiently and effectively permits an analyst to examine the code implementation of critical functions with an extremely high assurance of completeness. Additionally, if it is required, the SATS Tool Set and associated analysis process assures that 100% of code implementation of all of the code functions have in fact, been completely analyzed. Furthermore, using the SATS process, an analyst can efficiently determine the mix of code inspection, control, demonstration, analysis, and testing required to achieve any given level of trust. The Merdan SATS process has been successfully used to examine well over a million lines of code.

The SATS Tool Set consists of an integrated package of computer programs used to run interactively or in batch mode, on a computer system. The primary elements of the tool set consist of a Parser, Call Tree Generator, and Reference Checker. The Parser acts as an interface between the code and the remaining SATS tools. normally executed once, the Parser scans the entire system code [e.g., assembly, C++, etc.] producing structured files required by the remaining tools. The Call Tree Generator and Reference Checker tools prepare data for ease of software analysis. the automated mapping function produced by these two tools has proven to be invaluable when used in reverse engineering activities.

Training Course Material

Merdan also has developed and provided security training courses tailored to our customers needs. For further information on Merdan’s Services & Technology, please contact our New Business representative.

¹ "Apparatus and Method for Establishing a Cryptographic Link Between Elements of a System" Patent Number 5,878,172, July 28, 1998, United States Patent, Terry Sutton Arnold