Inside Look: How Pexip's CISO is Reimagining Secure Communications for Allied Operations

Today’s joint military operations face an invisible adversary that no weapon can overpower: the struggle to share classified information across allied nations at mission speed.

In a recent episode of Hash It Out, hosted by Virtru, we gained unique insights from Joel Bilheimer, CISO of Pexip Americas on the growing need to streamline collaboration in multi-domain operations.

As a former government ISSO and ISSM turned industry innovator, Bilheimer brings a rare perspective to the challenges of secure collaboration—particularly as NATO allies and partners face increasing pressure to communicate seamlessly across national boundaries while maintaining strict security protocols.

"We kept finding ourselves in the same room over and over, found out we had a lot of similar customers and prospects," explains Shannon Vaughn, military veteran and General Manager of Virtru's federal practice.

What emerged was a candid conversation between two federal security experts about how their technologies are tackling a challenge few others can: enabling truly secure collaboration in air-gapped environments and across national borders, while maintaining the speed and agility modern missions demand.

For those who couldn't join us, here are the five critical takeaways from this important conversation:

1. Allied Operations Demand a New Approach to Secure Collaboration

The landscape of military and government operations has fundamentally changed.

"All future fights are joint fights, and that's not just army and marine corps coming together. That's United States and Great Britain coming together," Vaughn explains. This new reality presents unique challenges for secure communications.

Bilheimer elaborates on the complexity: "In a 5 eyes type of an environment, in an allied Europe type of environment, where a given mission may have seven, eight different national boundaries coming in to discuss that mission... everyone needs to be able to instantly do what they need to do, communicate to whom they need to communicate."

But just as crucial is the ability to maintain strict boundaries when the mission ends – a delicate balance of accessibility and control.

2. Traditional Video Conferencing Falls Short in High-Security Environments

Unlike conventional solutions, modern secure collaboration requires a fundamentally different approach.

"We are entirely software based," Bilheimer explains. "Video conferencing traditionally tends to be hardware based, and then there's sort of a cloud portion of that. But we've always been entirely software based. And so we can deploy into air gap environments, which is pretty unique in the industry."

This software-first approach enables deployment flexibility that high-security environments demand, whether in air-gapped systems or hyperscaled across major cloud providers. It's about meeting security requirements without sacrificing operational capability.

3. Zero Trust Isn't Just a Checkbox

Both leaders challenged the industry's superficial approach to zero trust architecture.

"A lot of ZT today is, 'well, I put this device in, I checked the zero trust box, and now I have zero trust,'" Bilheimer observes. "That's not actually how that works."

Instead, real zero trust in multi-domain operations requires a more sophisticated approach. It's about enabling "mission based access control where this conversation is today is parsed at one level. Tomorrow, maybe it isn't."

This dynamic approach to security ensures that access is always appropriate to the current mission needs, not just based on static permissions.

4. Preventing Data Spillage While Maintaining Mission Speed

Vaughn highlights a crucial distinction in modern communication: "There's two ways that communication happens. There's file based communication... and then there's real time communication."

Understanding this dual nature is key to preventing data spillage without slowing down operations.

"The fastest way to get past that data spillage issue," Vaughn explains, "is don't allow people to receive an email with somebody on the to line and go, 'oh, I didn't know they were read into project x-ray.'"

Maintaining mission speed will hinge on the ability to build security into the communication process itself, not just adding it as an afterthought.

5. The Future of Secure Collaboration

Looking ahead, both leaders see technology evolving to meet increasingly complex operational needs. Pexip is developing analytical AI capabilities with NVIDIA, focusing on practical applications like live translations for multinational environments. But innovation isn't just about adding new features – it's about solving real operational challenges.

"We try to push as far towards the customer space as possible," Bilheimer notes, emphasizing their commitment to solving practical problems like licensing in air-gapped environments and enabling mission-specific access controls.

For security professionals and technology leaders working to enable secure collaboration in their own organizations, this conversation offers valuable insights into the future of multi-domain operations. Success requires more than just robust security—it demands solutions that can adapt to mission needs while keeping operations moving at the speed of today's threats.

"We're both user experience companies at the end of the day that do security things," Vaughn said, highlighting a crucial truth.  “The best security solutions are the ones that people will actually use.

For more, catch the conversation in full below.