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Information Support Server Environment (ISSE) Guard

In the 1990s, the DIA-certified Information Support Server Environment (ISSE) Guard, developed under contract to the Rome Laboratory, provided a secure interface for the direct softcopy exchange of information between Top Secret SCI systems and Secret Collateral systems operating over strategic and tactical wide or local area networks.

The Guard consisted of the Common Guard Interface (CGI) application, hosted on high side users' workstations and the Guard application running on the B-1 certified CyberGuard Night Hawk platform. The Guard was a bi-directional guard supporting the high to low and low to high transfer of email and image files and the high to low transfer of text files. The ISSE Guard had two external interfaces: a high side ethernet (IEEE 802.3) interface and low side interface that can be either 802.3 or X.25 for connection to the TPN. The Guard provided the functionality required to securely connect, validate, downgrade and transfer information between systems and networks operating at different security levels, while the CGI provided high side users with an interface to the Guard.

The Information Support Server Environment Guard version 3.0 permitted the secure digital exchange of electronic mail, imagery, text, and multimedia information between networks operating at dissimilar security classification levels. The system provides the ability to electronically connect networks operating at dissimilar security classification levels and supports the seamless, high-speed, controlled flow of information across security domains. This version provided significant increases in performance (an increase in throughput rate from 1.3 MB/second to 3.4 MB/second, a standards based open systems oriented Guard application, and a more stable and secure trusted interface.

The TENCAP Guard was a variant of the DIA-certified Information Support Server Environment (ISSE) Guard. In the Army TENCAP architecture, the TENCAP Guard provided the common interface to any Secret IP or packet switched networks (i.e., SIPRNET and TPN) for all fielded systems and supported fixed-site locations such as the MTOC.