Data Diodes, Hackers Hate Them!

Welcome back security enthusiasts, yet another interesting topic about high end cyber technologies.

Data diodes are becoming extremely important with the evolution of software borne threats and vulnerabilities and ever since software and supply chain attacks are rampant, the need for data diodes has been more than ever

Data is familiar word but what is DIODE

Diode is a terminology taken from an electronics language

There is a component on our circuit boards called DIODE who passes the current only one way

A diode ensures the current can only flow from one side of Diode to the other and never the other way around

This is a native capability and can NOT be changed.  Just like the TURNSTILES which can only allow one way passage

Just like this.

So now we understand that diode means ONE WAY channel !

Picking from the same , the term DATA Diode  is a component which can pass data or information from one side to the other and not the other way around

Now-that we are clear what is a data diode in the nutshell, lets see why there was a need of a data diode at all

With connected environments , there is always a need  to securely connect the  critical facilities to the  outside systems, for the sake of monitoring and visibility

 This in and itself becomes a risk when doors to outside world are open and most of us know that the pathway to Cloud in particular is full of holes

For the longest time companies have been using SOFTWARE security solutions like FIREWALLS to make sure the secret networks are safe from outside threats

Firewall is a known terminology and very well understood technology. Pretty much All of us have seen or used firewalls

But when it comes to highly sensitive networks, firewall software security is not enough.

Firewall have softwares on them which often have bugs… or sometimes they are wrongly configured ,  this in itself is a separate debate, we can talk at length on the  maintenance aspects of a firewall

The solution to this  problem is to put something in place which is hardware in nature and does not have a chance of  misconfiguration

Data diode is the perfect answer to it. Data diodes  are HARDWARE in nature and cannot be wrongly configured.

Bonus points, adding a data diode certifies the system to be on highest standards and (Security Level 4) , which I will explain later.  This also aligns well for the industry 4.0 initiatives

we can categorize data diodes into three different categories. Number 1 is  SOFTWARE data diode where you have a program ensuring the data only flows one way

Second category is HARDWAR data diode, where  you have a hardware isolating the two sides  and doesn’t have a logic in it

Third and the most evolved category is the optical data diode where you have no electricity, no power, it is offering an optical isolation natively

All of them do the same job, send information one way.

Hackers hate data diodes because when they see a data diode in the network, they cannot  get any response to the hacking alert

Imaging if an attacker wants to attack  a target and send  a scan, the only way the attacker can get to know the presence of target is  through the response.

So if the response is not there, attacker has no way to know whats on the other side