WHITE PAPER
Building Safe and Secure Processing Systems for Future Autonomous Platforms
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About Mercury
Mercury Systems (Nasdaq: MRCY) is a leading technology company serving the aerospace and defense
industry, positioned at the intersection of high tech and defense. Headquartered in Andover, MA, we
deliver solutions that power a broad range of aerospace and defense programs, optimized for mission
success in some of the most challenging and demanding environments. We envision, create and deliver
innovative technology solutions purpose-built to meet our customers' most-pressing high-tech needs.
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The Mercury Systems logo and the following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mercury Systems, Inc.: Mercury Systems, Innovation That
Matters, and BuiltSECURE. Other marks used herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Mercury believes
this information is accurate as of its publication date and is not responsible for any inadvertent errors. The information contained herein is subject
to change without notice.
© 2021 Mercury Systems, Inc. 8093.00E-1021-wp-ProcessingSafeSecure
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Learn more:
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Corporate Headquarters
50 Minuteman Road
Andover, MA 01810 USA
+1 978.967.1401 tel
+1 866.627.6951 tel
+1 978.256.3599 fax
International Headquarters
Switzerland
Avenue Eugène-Lance, 38
PO Box 584
CH-1212 Grand-Lancy 1
Geneva, Switzerland
+41 22 884 51 00 tel
BUILDING
A SAFE AND SECURE ISOLATED
SUBSYSTEM
A subsystem that separates critical and vital processing
enclaves is easier to assure, secure and protect. Safety-
critical applications would only use assured enclaves,
reducing the need for recertification. The assured
enclaves can then be protected by multiple layers of
security that would require an adversary to break
through all layers to gain a foothold. Furthermore, if the
subsystem is deployed in special environments
requiring ruggedization, such as radiation hardening,
only those critical enclaves would need to be hardened
and others just tolerant. This architectural approach is
easier to build and maintain, and paves the path to safe
and secure systems. As a leading provider of rugged,
safe and secure subsystems, Mercury has experience
designing and implementing isolated architectures and
works closely with customers to design solutions that
meet specific application requirements.
A segmented architecture would have a secure, assured processing
enclave that contains management software. This software would limit
the access of each non-critical processing enclave to minimize attack
surfaces, while the critical enclave would be assured and contain all
safety-critical functions.
ASSURED, CRITICAL PROCESSING ENCLAVE
WITH MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Processing
enclave 1
Processing
enclave 2
Processing
enclave 2
