U.S. Navy Testing Demonstrates Keyspace Technology Performance

Highlights Advances in Hardware-Rooted Integrity for Operational Technologies

CHARLOTTE, NC — December 2, 2025

Assured Integrity at the Hardware Layer

Whether it drives a ship, a power plant, oil refinery or a factory line, every industrial system depends on trust between machines. For decades, operators have been forced into a posture where that trust had to be assumed. Turning the wheel to guide a barge or adjusting the throttle, would result in control over the placement of the vessel. Pushing a button to stop a pump, meant the pump would in fact stop. However, with modernization the assumption of trust has become misplaced — where machines were once directly connected today they are not. KST demonstrates that both in traditional direct wire connections and in modern networked environments, trust can be proven.

KST establishes provable trust between machines a the signal or packet level, uniquely authenticating and validating each exchange before execution. This happens entirely in hardware, below the software stack, where timing and reliability cannot be compromised or lives can be lost. The result is assured integrity that delivers to operators the ability to know, not hope, that commands are received, authentic and unaltered.

Working with, Not Against, the Cyber Ecosystem

KST is not necessarily a replacement for existing cybersecurity tools, it is a new foundation that makes them stronger. Conventional cyber tools manage known threats at higher layers of the network – excellent for insider threats and policy failures. KST operates beneath them, cloaking hardware and reducing the likelihood that both known or unknown and highly novel attacks can gain a foothold.

During testing, KST was evaluated in a configuration operating across OSI Layers 1 through 4; the physical layers beneath conventional software defenses. Enforcing trust at this level, KST helps firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, and encryption suites reach further toward the operational edge without adding performance overhead. It lets IT and OT (operational technologies, the systems that run physical operations like propulsion, manufacturing, and energy generation) to converge with confidence, protecting new and legacy infrastructure while enabling modernization.

“KST strengthens existing cybersecurity by addressing trust from beneath the problem rather than on top of it… This approach makes it possible to stop attacks before they start, even the ones no one has seen yet.”

Clinton Groves, CEO; Blueskytec America

Modernization in Place

While the evaluation demonstrated KST’s capability in control environments representative of maritime systems, the same principles applies to any infrastructure domain. We now have a definitive answer on how to modernize securely without rebuilding from scratch.

KST enables modernization in place. From turbines and pipelines to transportation networks or unmanned platforms, inserting KST into existing systems without rewriting code or disrupting operations provides assurances that operations will endure even when challenged by outside threats. Designed to be protocol and topology agnostic, KST functions in virtually any environment to secure data in transit and if required can extend its protections to data at rest.

The KST architecture came to market for control networks, but was designed to be even closer to the physical process, reaching the level where machines and sensors interact directly with the real world, deep inside physical processes. Though not evaluated in Navy testing, this flexibility enables protections that span from the sensor membrane to the display buffer, maintaining end-to-end integrity along the entire signal path.

The flexibility of KST’s design architecture allows it to ensure trusted operations and secure systems that range from deeply embedded serial links to modern IP-based networks — from a signal’s creation to consumption.

Zero Trust, Made Physical

Testing demonstrated deterministic zero-trust enforcement at the network’s foundation, including cryptographic microsegmentation to packet-level authentication.

The zero-trust model, which assumes nothing can be trusted by default has become the modern standard for cyber defense, but has been largely applied to IT at and within the software stack, and is difficult to implement and scale in OT. KST’s transformation of that concept from software and operational policy to physical logic allows it to function at scale and enforce zero trust at the edge. Creating an “always-verify” perimeter between every machine, IT or OT. It enforces cryptographic separation between trusted and untrusted systems and isolates potential threats before they reach critical components by validating every signal and frame.

This is significantly more granular than the required zero-trust session-level controls. Sessions resemble giving unrestricted access to a building once your badge clears the front door. KST forces every door, every turn, every stairwell or elevator (even the elevator buttons) to require a new key and not just to gain entry but to leave. A new key for every action, every time.

KST achieves this through a one-time-pad model generated from high-entropy random sources, ensuring every transmission is verified through a unique key and then that key is discarded — making replay, spoofing, or tampering effectively impossible.

Looking Forward

With prototype testing now complete, Blueskytec America is expanding its collaboration with defense and commercial partners to advance KST integration across critical infrastructure. Subsequent efforts focus on environmental qualification, scaling production, and expanding adoption across industries that depend on reliable, deterministic control.

“The evaluation demonstrated that the technology performed as intended. Now it’s time to show industry that trust [between devices within critical infrastructure] can be demonstrated, not assumed, and that the path to secure modernization starts at the hardware layer.”

Clinton Groves, CEO; Blueskytec America