For two decades the company has contributed to the country’s development in areas such as cyber defense, digital certification and cryptography
The trajectory of Kryptus, a Brazilian multinational company of cryptography and cybersecurity solutions, is directly linked to the country’s technological advancement in the last two decades. Headquartered in Campinas (SP), one of the main technology and innovation centers in Brazil, Kryptus, since the beginning of its operations in 2003, has been at the forefront of the development of a 100% national portfolio aimed at internal and external demands from both the public and private sectors.
For Roberto Gallo, founder and CEO of Kryptus, investment in advanced research to anticipate trends and challenges is one of the factors that has made the company stand out in the market for 20 years. “I believe that one of our differentials is our expertise in visualizing what is still to come, which gives us time to develop products that will reach the market years later in their maturity, making them competitive even in the international market,” he says.
Gallo cites as an example the increasing use of artificial intelligence applied to information security, a subject the company has been working on for more than three years. Earlier this year, Kryptus was selected to develop the first Brazilian autonomous intelligent cyber defense system. Internally dubbed “Project Typhon”, the initiative is a partnership with Bluepex and the Science and Technology Institutes (ICT) of the Center for Naval Systems Analysis (CASNAV) and the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR).
“With extensive investment in research and strategic partnerships, Kryptus, over two decades, has contributed to the country’s autonomy in relation to cybersecurity technologies, a sensitive topic, especially for sectors related to Defense,” says Gallo. The prioritization of the Ministry of Defense for 100% national technology earned Kryptus the recognition as an EED – Strategic Defense Company, which enabled, in 2020, an important contribution from the Aerospace Investment Fund (FIP), in which Embraer is the main investor.
Kryptus was also a partner in the implementation of the public digital certification standard in the country, responsible for accelerating the government digitalization process and the services provided to citizens. The project was conducted by the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure (ICP-Brasil), led by the National Institute of Information Technology (ITI). “One of ITI’s challenges was the process of homologation of cryptographic equipment in the country, until then restricted to international systems. We helped idealize a domestic system, which was born as an internal homologation at ITI. Kryptus’ HSM was the first to be approved by ICP-Brasil, precisely because it was the module applied at AC-Raiz, in 2008,” recalls Gallo.
In 2015, again with the support of Kryptus, ICP-Brasil issued the root v4, adopted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for signing Brazilian electronic passports, ensuring international security standard. Three years later, roots v6 and v7 – the latter applied in the making of the electronic ballot boxes used in the 2022 elections – were issued and also adequate with the Kryptus HSM.
In these two decades, Kryptus has also developed unique solutions and products in the global market, ratifying the company’s vocation for innovation. This is the case of KeyGuardian, a portable cryptographic security token that provides post-quantum protection (PQC) for data and communication secrecy, capable of creating One-Time Pad (OTP) encryption keys, impossible to break. In 2021, the Brazilian Navy began using the device for encryption of sensitive information.
“Being a security and cryptography solution provider with 100% national technology positions Kryptus as one of the main strategic Defense partners, ensuring secure interoperability of the Armed Forces to maintain the country’s sovereignty,” says Gallo.
And to celebrate these 20 years and also the next ones, the consortium led by Visiona, which has Kryptus and four other companies – Equatorial, Fibraforte, Opto and Orbital – as partners, has just signed an agreement with the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP) for the development and qualification of the first very high resolution private Brazilian satellite. According to Gallo, the project will enable several applications, such as ecosystem monitoring and defense and intelligence operations. “This will be the first satellite built in the country, and one of the few in the world, to incorporate post-quantum cryptography with resistance to COMINT and SIGINT actions, both in TT&C channels and payloads. There could not be a more significant milestone in the history of our company,” he concludes.