How an organization manages and stores its encryption keys is critical, especially if you’re managing the world’s most sensitive data like financial services organizations, enterprises, retailers, and government organizations. Key management can be complex, time-consuming, and difficult, according to Ryan Smith, vice president, global business development, at Futurex, who authored The Security Imperative: Data Protection in Security Boulevard.
He states that one of the bigger challenges facing organizations today is expanding and retrofitting existing legacy systems and architectures to modernize and future-proof them. In the article, Smith outlines good questions to ask, touches on implementation and integration, and offers up his perspective on encryption trends.
“To protect sensitive data, the most robust storage medium for encryption keys is inside a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated hardware security module,” says Smith. With this important validation, HSMs are widely recognized as the most secure way to secure critical infrastructures by managing encryption, cryptographic key management, and supporting end-to-end security. Is it time to update or migrate your HSM? If so, here’s what to look for:
What are my HSM pain points and has the industry resolved them?
Has managing large groups of HSMs in different locations been a challenge?
Is deploying a unified HSM/Key Management-as-a-Service across our enterprise an executive priority?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to data security, as Smith notes. Some organizations may require brute encryption of their data; some may want tokenization to give them more flexibility; some may want cryptography-as-a-service (CaaS) if they don’t have cryptography knowledge or resources. Sophisticated encryption key management solutions — however they take form — are essential to any cryptographic operation.
