On May 4, Owl Cyber Defense announced the launch of its Incident Response Diode (IRD), the industry’s first pocket-sized protocol filtering diode (PFD) for incident response and forensics teams. The Owl IRD was developed to help users securely move evidence from compromised endpoints into trusted analysis environments without adding risk. Owl IRD will be made available to select customers for field testing.
When an endpoint is compromised, responders must race against the clock to pull critical data before systems are wiped, reimaged or attacked again. But risky connections and legacy technology may spread malware, break chain of custody, and trigger costly enclave rebuilds. The Owl IRD solves this with hardware-enforced, protocol-aware one-way transfer per U.S. Government PFD requirements. As a PFD, the Owl IRD enhances the unidirectional nature of a simple diode with protocol filtering at the FPGA level — delivering a secure, repeatable evidence path that reduces reinfection risk and preserves forensic integrity. The Owl IRD extends Owl’s PFD suite to the endpoint, complementing Owl Talon’s always-on network flows with purpose-built incident response capabilities, from endpoint triage to evidence intake and one-way mission data collection. High-stakes collections become a consistent, defensible workflow.
“Every incident responder knows the uncomfortable tradeoffs they face when collecting evidence from a live, compromised system,” said Tim Fahl, chief technology officer at Owl Cyber Defense. “Their options are to rush ahead with tools that put their clean environments at risk, or slow everything down trying to engineer safer workarounds in the middle of a crisis. The Owl IRD eliminates that tradeoff by putting protocol-aware, hardware-enforced, one-way protection directly into the responder’s go-bag, so teams can confidently collect what they need without opening new paths for the adversary.”
Source: Owl
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