Encryption in Transit

Encrypting data as it moves across networks prevents eavesdropping and tampering by anyone who can observe or intercept the traffic.

Protecting Data in Motion

Data in transit is data crossing a network: between a browser and a server, between services, between a control room and a remote site. Any party on the path, an ISP, a compromised router, someone on the same Wi-Fi, can potentially read or alter unencrypted traffic. Encryption in transit makes the traffic unreadable and detects tampering, so intercepting it yields nothing useful.

How It Works

Kronos motion — traffic controller

The dominant mechanism is Transport Layer Security (TLS). A client and server negotiate a shared session key using asymmetric cryptography, then encrypt the actual data with a fast symmetric cipher. Certificates let the client verify the server's identity, defeating impersonation. Modern TLS also provides forward secrecy, so a later key compromise does not decrypt past sessions.

Beyond the Web

VPNs and IPsec for site-to-site and remote access tunnels
SSH for encrypted administrative sessions
Mutual TLS between services in a zero-trust network
Encrypted messaging and file transfer protocols

Integrity, Not Just Secrecy

Encryption in transit protects integrity as well as confidentiality. Authenticated protocols detect if a man-in-the-middle alters bytes on the wire. For control systems, integrity is often the greater concern: a tampered command is more dangerous than an observed one.

Fusion Context

Telemetry leaving a fusion plant and any authorized remote access must be encrypted so that neither can be observed or altered on the network. Where control data crosses zone boundaries in the Hyperion breeder and burner designs, authenticated channels protect integrity, and where data should only ever flow outward, a data diode enforces one-way transfer in hardware rather than relying on protocol configuration alone.