"Fortezza" is a registered trademark held by the National Security Agency. In practice, it is a term used to describe a family of security products. This family includes PCMCIA-based cards, compatible serial port devices, combination cards (e.g., Fortezza/Modem and Fortezza/Ethernet), server boards, and others. "Fortezza-enabled" or "Fortezza Certified" are terms applied to other hardware and software products that have had Fortezza security integrated. Examples include E-Mail, File Encryptors, WWW browsers, databases, digital cellular telephones, and routers.
Absolutely! Currently there are a variety of projects and commercial developments integrating Fortezza into Digital Cellular Telephones, Pagers, PDAs, Routers, Badges, and many more. The initial Fortezza development was started to create a user-friendly, low cost security device for the Defense Message System. To be flexible, the card was designed to be a general purpose cryptographic "co-processor" that could be used in numerous applications. Fortezza provides convenient, FAST, security services such as data integrity (via the Secure Hash Algorithm), Authentication and Non-Repudiation (via the Digital Signature Algorithm), and Confidentiality (via the Key Exchange Algorithm and Skipjack Algorithm).
This site contains most of the Fortezza specifications that are used by vendors to add the Fortezza API to their products. For more information about the Fortezza program, certification, or other network security issues, please call 1-800-GO-MISSI.
NSA is not "selling" a product. We attend conferences to inform the vendor community about technologies that are available to them. Anyone outside the Government wishing to buy a Fortezza card or application must contact the appropriate vendor. Government agencies and departments may be able to purchase these products through existing commodity contracts, call 1-800-GO-MISSI for more information.