“Communicating at mission speed”: why data security is essential for operational success

Brought to you in partnership with Everfox

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems is reshaping the global threat environment and driving demand for protected data flows and high-assurance infrastructure, according to Dave Wajsgras, CEO of cybersecurity specialists Everfox.

“A few years ago, cyber became a warfighting domain, and today it is clearly a very contested and high-threat environment, with the US, UK and other allies exceptionally focused in this area.

“Companies like ours, as part of the defence and security ecosystem, directly support our warfighters by bringing different tools. At Everfox, we’re focused on the defensive side of the equation, and what we do is needed more than ever. The company is meeting the moment,” he explained.

Pursuing demand signals

According to Wajsgras, this proliferation of AI and autonomy is accelerating the volume of data moving across defence and security networks, creating new requirements for information security.

“Today, there’s more and more data flowing. It might not necessarily be classified, but you need to protect it. Our capabilities lend themselves directly to protecting against the bad things that can happen when utilising AI capabilities for the right reasons.

“That AI infrastructure is driving some of our growth across Everfox International, and in the US as well,” he added.

A recent leadership reset has also sharpened Everfox’s focus on international expansion, Wajsgras emphasised. The company’s software and hardware portfolio now enables trusted information exchange between networks that were not designed to connect, including classified-to-unclassified transfers and coalition partner environments.

These cross-domain solutions are then complemented by insider risk technologies, which account for approximately 30% of Everfox’s business.

“The company’s doing exceedingly well because the demand signals in both cross-domain and insider risk today are far greater than they’ve ever been our 20-year history.

“The need for communications at mission speed, without the risk of being breached or exploited, either directly or indirectly, lends itself to exactly what Everfox provides,” he continued.

“From all the demand signals we’re seeing for 2027 and beyond, both types of capability are going to be growing well into double digits across our business areas, and there’s actually a nice crossover between those two parts of the portfolio.”

Enabling mission dominance

Everfox’s cross-domain solutions are designed to enable this “mission-speed” data movement while reducing the risks of classification leakage, exploitation and oversharing.

For Wajsgras, the requirement is particularly acute in coalition operations, where information must move between organisations, classification levels and national networks without compromising overall security.

“In today’s world, when you’re thinking about coalition partner environments, you’re thinking about different classifications of information moving between intelligence organisations, between warfighting groups and between different countries that are close allies.

“These types of capabilities are serving a mission-critical purpose, and there are lots of examples of how to do that,” he said.

Wajsgras cited the potential exchange of highly classified information between the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the US Department of War (DoW) as an example.

“If the UK MoD wants to communicate highly classified information with the DoW, we can parse those data streams, and UK intelligence or military commanders can transmit what they want to, hold back what they want to, and then vice versa,” he explained.

For McKinty, the value of these capabilities ultimately comes down to mission enablement.

“They’re acting rapidly, whether it’s information for a particular platform or a particular partner that has to move at mission speed. So how do they do that without increasing the risk?

“All of our capabilities lean into that. They look at us and they see that we’re an enabler, and that’s a really good position to be in. We are a high-assurance cybersecurity company, but our real value to our customers is enabling their mission and that mission speed from a growth perspective.”

Demonstrating operational impact

In July, a joint British-Canadian exercise demonstrated the operational impact of reducing the time required to move information through a contested environment.

Exercise Rhino Bizz, conducted in the UK, saw Everfox provide a cross-domain capability that enabled “critical information from sensor-to-decision-support-to-shooter” move in seconds as opposed to minutes, according to McKinty.

The ability to compress that decision-making cycle could prove critical in a high-tempo operational environment, Wajsgras added.

“From simply a timeline standpoint, and in the heat of battle and when you’re in theatre, you can see how important condensing that timeline would be. We’re able to do that, condensing exponentially without the risk that information is going to leak, or that inappropriate information gets into the hands of the adversary,” he explained.

The tactical edge is another area of opportunity for Everfox which continues to extend its technology into increasingly contested and distributed operating environments.

“We see a lot of opportunity there, and we’re already serving large parts of that market,” Wajsgras said, confirming the company is working to integrate its solutions aboard undisclosed fifth-generation aircraft, while also engaging with manufacturers on tactical ground vehicle applications.

“We are beginning to work with a number of OEMs to deploy on ground vehicles. That’s probably where the most competition sits today, but I think we’re making good progress there as well.”

Identifying insider risk

Alongside its cross-domain capabilities, Everfox is also experiencing strong demand for technologies designed to identify and mitigate insider risk.

The company supports numerous intelligence agencies in the US and across the wider Five Eyes community, Wajsgras noted.

“Espionage is a big deal in the world today, and it’s far broader and deeper than many people really comprehend: think trade secrets moving out of an organisation’s four walls and into the hands of an adversary.”

Everfox is deployed within the DoW and defence ministries elsewhere, although its insider risk business remains primarily US-focused.

The company is also supporting the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “We completed the rollout across the FBI’s most sensitive networks, and we are almost complete with what they call the ‘green’ networks – the unclassified networks in the FBI,” Wajsgras concluded.

For Everfox, taken together these developments underscore the increasingly close relationship between information security and operational effectiveness. As defence organisations adopt AI-enabled capabilities, integrate advanced platforms and share growing volumes of data with coalition partners, the ability to move that data rapidly and safely is becoming an essential element of mission success.

Find out more about Everfox