Inkit, the only Secure Document Generation (SDG) platform, and Metro State University today announced the completion of a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity research project to support secure document creation and electronic record management for the U.S. Air Force.
This research project was funded through a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), a program administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration that awards research and development funds to domestic small businesses to develop transformational technologies. The Air Force STTR facilitated research and testing of Inkit’s zero-trust DocGen solution by cybersecurity teams at Metro State.
According to a survey by McKinsey, damage from cyberattacks will amount to about $10.5 trillion annually by 2025—a 300 percent increase from 2015 levels. To counter these attacks, organizations worldwide spent $150+ billion in 2021 on cybersecurity, and those costs are growing by 12.4 percent annually. As daunting as these numbers are, cybersecurity is non-negotiable. Individuals, businesses, government agencies, and national defense organizations must be vigilant about security at the user, endpoint, network, and application levels.
Two teams of undergraduate and graduate students at Metro State, under the supervision of a faculty member, tested the Inkit application to ensure that its secure document generation and records retention functionality provided the uncompromising security demanded by United States Department of Defense (DoD) records retention requirements. Metro State students subjected the Inkit solution to the following:
- Social engineering and phishing
- External penetration testing
- Application scanning
- Vulnerability assessments
- Application information gathering
Metro State is the only Twin Cities university to offer comprehensive programming in cybersecurity, including a Cybersecurity bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in Cyber Operations, and an accelerated combined bachelor’s and master’s program in Cybersecurity Operations. The university was recently awarded one of four grants nationwide from the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity and has been recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NCAE-CD) four times running for having degree programs that complete in-depth assessments and meet rigorous cyber defense educational requirements.
“The nature of digital threats is constantly changing, so cybersecurity education must be taught in a hands-on, real-world environment,” said Dr. Faisal Kaleem, Computer Science and Cybersecurity professor at Metro State University. “Partnering with Inkit in support of the U.S. Air Force was not only an honor, but it was an excellent opportunity for Metro State students to participate in a research project with real-world implications.”
Inkit provides the only Secure Document Generation (SDG) platform with unique security features for government entities, defense organizations, and regulated businesses. Inkit is also the subject of an SBIR / STTR, allowing it to help the federal government:
- Generate documents at scale in all major formats
- Simplify records retention and archival
- Prevent security breaches and reduce insider threats
- Simplify access management across their entire organizations
- Control access to sensitive information with Disappearing Documents
“Inkit is a privacy-focused document generation solution, and we are constantly working to stay ahead of the security threats that our customers face,” added Inkit CEO Michael McCarthy. “Working with research partners like Metro State is a key ingredient in our ability to provide our users with the most secure DocGen solution on the market.”
About Metro State University
Founded in 1971, Metro State University, a member of Minnesota State, is the Twin Cities public, urban, comprehensive state university providing lifelong learning and competitive academic and professional degree programs at the bachelor, master, and doctoral levels. The University currently offers more than 60 undergraduate programs and more than 25 graduate degrees. Metro State ranks 22nd in the nation and first in Minnesota on CollegeNet's Social Mobility Index, which measures colleges' and universities' success in elevating students from low-income strata into the middle class within five years of graduation. To learn more, visit www.metrostate.edu.
About Inkit
Inkit is the only Secure Document Generation (SDG) platform that allows users to generate, encrypt, and distribute documents in total privacy. Inkit offers the best multicloud environment for all your favorite apps or to generate documents in Microsoft Docs, PPT, XLS, PDF, and HTML. Get the security you can depend on with Inkit's serverless architecture, disappearing documents, roles and permissions, and document streaming features. Inkit is privately owned and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, with offices in Washington, D.C.