Phison and Cigent Announce Global Partnership to Produce Cyber-Secure NVMe SSDs

By integrating Cigent’s Bare Metal™ active data protections with Phison’s industry-leading commitment to cyber-secure SSDs, global OEM/ODM customers can soon offer a level of embedded data security which far exceeds current software-only EDR and encryption-based solutions.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – March 19, 2019 – Phison Electronics Corp. and Cigent Technology, Inc. today announced the world’s first cyber-secure PCIe based NVMe SSD controller. When paired with Cigent’s endpoint software, Phison’s E12DC Gen3x4 NVMe SSD controller will use elements of AI, machine learning and deception to detect security anomalies and actively respond with hardware-based data protections.  

“Phison is a world leader in SSD Flash controllers, shipping over 40 million of SSD controllers annually to a broad base of global customers,” said Bradley A. Rowe, CEO and co-founder of Cigent. “We are thrilled by Phison’s commitment to embed active data protection into millions of storage devices. Phison offers system and OEM/ODM services for numerous major brand names.  Phison is a proven leader and innovator in storage technology, but they are now an important player in cybersecurity.”

The global cyber-crime epidemic has reached epic proportions and is projected to hit $6 trillion by 2021. Every day 1.5 million businesses and people worldwide are affected by cyber-crime and the loss of intellectual property. Existing tools are only effective to a point as the bad actors eventually get in. By inserting protection into the firmware layer of an SSD, Bare Metal™ promises to prevent data theft and thwart cyber-criminals.

“The opportunity for innovation with our new partner, Cigent, is almost limitless,” said KS Pua, CEO and co-founder of Phison. “Existing endpoint security solutions fall short of locking down critical data in an elevated threat environment. Cigent’s and Phison’s collaboration will enable any partner cybersecurity company to tether their protections directly to critical data where it resides in NAND. Firmware-based protections are exceptionally difficult to bypass.”

Cigent Bare Metal enabled SSDs are designed to work in conjunction with all existing security solutions and proactively lock-down critical data in an elevated threat environment. The Bare Metal firmware-based approach models data access patterns and actively defends critical data with minimal user interaction. Cigent’s endpoint agent utilizes these access patterns, along with other system sensors, to provide continuous user authentication for both local and cloud-based data and applications. Cigent’s endpoint agent further supports an API for third-party security integrations.  The partners expect the first shipments of Cigent Bare Metal-enabled E12DC NVMe SSD controllers by Phison in the second quarter of 2019.