Owl Cyber Defense has announced the launch of its Incident Response Diode (IRD), a pocket-sized protocol filtering diode (PFD) designed 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. The 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.”

With the Owl IRD, incident response and forensics teams can:

• Collect evidence from compromised endpoints using standard USB operations without exposing trusted analysis environments to hidden risk.
• Standardize how evidence moves from the field to the lab with built-in session records.
• Reduce downtime with a self-contained diode responders can use anywhere.

With the addition of the Owl IRD, Owl Cyber Defense now provides defense and critical infrastructure operators with an end-to-end approach to one-way data protection, from mission networks to compromised endpoints.