The KOV-14 Fortezza Plus is a US National Security Agency

National Security Agency

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

-approved PC card

PC card

In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...

 which provides encryption

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...

 functions and key storage to the Secure Terminal Equipment

Secure Terminal Equipment

Secure Terminal Equipment is the U.S. Government's current , encrypted telephone communications system for wired or "landline" communications. STE is designed to use ISDN telephone lines which offer higher speeds of up to 128k bits per second and are all digital...

 and other devices. It is a tamper-resistant module based on the Mykotronx Krypton chip, including all of the cryptographic functionality of the original Fortezza

Fortezza

Fortezza is an information security system based on a PC Card security token. Each individual who is authorized to see protected information is issued a Fortezza card that stores private keys and other data needed to gain access...

 card plus the Type 1

Type 1 encryption

In cryptography, a Type 1 product is a device or system certified by the National Security Agency for use in cryptographically securing classified U.S...

 algorithms/protocols BATON

BATON

BATON is a Type 1 block cipher in use since at least 1995 by the United States government to secure classified information.While the BATON algorithm itself is secret, the public PKCS#11 standard includes some general information about how it is used. It has a 320-bit key and uses a 128-bit block...

 and Firefly

Firefly (protocol)

Firefly is a U.S. National Security Agency public-key key exchange protocol, used in EKMS, the STU-III secure telephone, and several other U.S. cryptographic systems.-References:* RFC 2522* , USAREUR Pamphlet 380-40...

, the SDNS signature algorithm, and the STU-III

STU-III

STU-III is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies. STU-III desk units look much like typical office telephones, plug into a standard telephone wall jack and can make calls to any ordinary phone user...

 protocol. It was developed by Mykotronx as part of the NSA's MISSI program. As of 2008, the KOV-14 is beginning to be phased out and replaced by the backwards compatible KSV-21

KSV-21

The KSV-21 Enhanced Crypto Card is a US National Security Agency-approved PC card that provides Type 1 encryption functions and key storage to the STE secure telephones and other devices....

PC card.