Cigent Firmware with Digistor Citadel C Series FIPS Validated

Cigent Technology, Inc., in partnership with Digistor, a CRU Data Security Group LLC (CDSG) brand,, announces the Digistor Citadel C Series advanced SSDs are FIPS Validated (Certificate 4294).

In addition, the SSDs are listed on the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) common criteria product in evaluation list (VID 11297).

The Digistor Citadel C Series advanced SSD is set to become the first commercial off-the-shelf SSD that includes Cigent’s firmware level security capabilities to be on the NIAP compliant list for use by military and government agencies, critical infrastructure, and enterprises requiring the highest data security levels. Cigent focuses on protecting data, not the device or the network. And its protections are as close to the data as possible, in the storage itself, outside of the endpoint root of trust chain, preventing access to data from all known and unknown vulnerabilities and supply chain attacks.

Cigent custom firmware in the Digistor Citadel C Series drives provides block-level verification that all data on the storage has been wiped after a successful erasure attempt. It also offers immutable insider detection, collecting data access logs captured and stored in a secure storage device area that cannot be wiped. Finally, it includes an automated threat response that ensures adversaries who try to bypass Cigent software cannot access sensitive data.

These protections enable organizations to meet government compliance standards, including CSfC, NIAP, and FIPS. Government organizations must adhere to NSA CSfC DAR (Data at Rest) requirements to protect sensitive and classified data and will soon be able to do so with the Digistor Citadel C Series advanced drives.

Cigent further enables hardware disk encryption protected by non-recoverable keys that protect data theft from the most advanced physical access data and key recovery access techniques. It then makes data invisible after logging into the O/S by implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) for access to partitions and ensuring only trusted users can access sensitive files on the endpoint using MFA.

“Despite attempts by organizations to move endpoint data to the cloud, sensitive, classified, and mission-critical data and information continues to be stored and accessed on endpoints,” said Tom Ricoy, chief revenue officer, Cigent. “Users often must work with this data on their endpoint to achieve their objectives, and protecting this data is critical. Now, with Cigent’s advanced data security capabilities built into the storage itself, users can safely and securely work wherever and however they need to.“

“We’re pleased to team up with Cigent to create the robust, secure storage provided by Digistor Citadel C Series SSDs,” said Randal Barber, CEO, Digistor parent CDSG. “Using FIPS-validated and NIAP-listed SSDs assures Cigent and Digistor customers that their sensitive data will be securely protected with Cigent’s cybersecurity features, pre-boot authentication, and certified AES 256-bit encryption.“

NIAP certification is a commercial cybersecurity product certification mandated by federal procurement requirements (CNSSP 11) for use in US National Security Systems, as information systems operated by the US Government, contractors for the government, or agents that contain classified information. These systems may involve intelligence activities, cryptographic activities related to national security, command, and control of military forces, equipment that is an integral part of a weapon or weapons system, or are critical to the direct fulfillment of military or intelligence missions.