What is a TACLANE?

If you read my resume you will see that I work with “Tactical Local Area Network Encryption (TACLANE) devices”, or “Type 1 Encryptor “. TACLANES are High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) Type 1 encryption devices that comply with the National Security Agency's (NSA) HAIPE IS (formerly the HAIPIS, the High Assurance Internet Protocol Interoperability Specification). I know that is a mouth-full of alphabet soup. What it means is these devices are typically used as secure gateways that allows two or more enclaves to exchange data over an untrusted or lower-classification network. The cryptography used is Suite A and Suite B, also specified by the NSA as part of the Cryptographic Modernization Program.

HAIPE IS is based on IPsec with additional restrictions and enhancements. One of these enhancements includes the ability to encrypt multicast data using a "preplaced key". This requires loading the same key on all HAIPE devices that will participate in the multicast session in advance of data transmission.