PKI Cybersecurity Credentials Zero Trust Innovation

100% Protection, 0% Vulnerability:  Ephemeral Key Infrastructure Secures Machine Identities

John Ellingson
John Ellingson

It seemed like a good idea at the time. We all have heard or probably even used that phrase. Back in the mid-1970s, a couple of very smart guys set out to protect important information. They invented what we are still using today to protect virtually all digital information and every digital network. In the 1970s we didn’t have the Internet, Google, Amazon, cell phones, laptops, or data breaches. That ‘70s concept became the digital credential that today is stolen by every type of hacker to break into every possible kind of digital system.


The most recent analysis indicates that this 1970’s invention is now the pathway for 86% of all data breaches. What started out as a means of protecting digital information has morphed into the primary vulnerability for digital systems.

QWERX has addressed this vulnerability and totally eliminated it. The comparison chart below summarizes the differences between the obsolete and vulnerable existing paradigm (Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI) and its replacement: QWERX’s patented Ephemeral Key Infrastructure (EKI).

EKI vs. PKI

Standard Authentication and Encryption Keys

99.9% Vulnerability
0.1% Protection

Standard keys offer protection only in the moment they are being used to authenticate or encrypt, which is a tiny fraction of their existence. The rest of the time they are a vulnerability and must themselves be protected from adversaries. This is why last year 86% of all data breaches were the result of stolen credentials derived from authentication keys of one kind or another.

QWERX’s Ephemeral Key Infrastructure-based machine authentication keys provide 100% protection and 0.0% vulnerability. QWERX has eliminated the functions from key operations that create vulnerabilities. QWERX keys only exist when they are actually being used. They are never stored or exchanged. They cannot be stolen or disclosed—they are ephemeral and are used only a single time.
John Ellingson

John Ellingson

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John Ellingson is the Chief Technology Officer at QWERX. John started his digital career with the Boeing Company working on the 747 aircraft in the late 1960s. He became a computer-literate attorney performing what is today known as forensic accounting. As the founding chairman of the ABA/YLD Subcommittee on Tax Treatment in Bankruptcy, John worked with the Congressional Joint Tax Committee to create the Internal Revenue Code Provision enabling the tax-free merger and acquisition of debtor corporations. This law became part of the Bankruptcy Tax Act of 1980. John had a national M&A practice in this area and obtained the first IRS Private Letter Ruling on this Code section. As a result of this practice, he observed a frequent element of white-collar crime in many bankruptcy cases, and he subsequently developed and patented a method to detect identity fraud. The product derived from that patent is still deployed at most retail banks throughout the U.S. today. This success started John on a path of protecting digital systems and identity management. He continued in this role with American Operations Corporation and ASM Research before founding infOsci LLC and later QWERX, Inc. John holds numerous method patents in digital system security. John was appointed to the United States Air Force Academy and medically separated before graduation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Juris Doctor degree from Seattle University. For 20 years John served as a liaison officer with the United States Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy. He also served on the Service Academy Selection Boards for two U.S. Senators.

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