Nowadays, organizations collect and store a constant amount of sensitive data. As data grows, keeping this valuable information secure becomes more important. Encryption locks down confidential files, communications, and databases so they can’t be read without the right keys. However, managing these keys presents its challenge. Someone must oversee key generation, distribution, and protection. This important job falls to an enterprise key management system. As one of the top solutions, CipherTrust Manager ensures this role is filled.
CipherTrust Manager is the central command center for all encryption keys within an organization’s IT systems. It handles the full key lifecycle from creation through rotation and replacement based on set rules.
Keys are securely held in specially protected hardware devices. These secure machines, called hardware security modules (or HSMs for short), solely contain the electronic copies of keys. Even if servers or storage units are attacked, the keys stay safeguarded from theft or improper use since they never leave the hardened HSM environments.
The five key benefits of the CipherTrust Manager encryption key management platform.
Centralized key management
The main benefit of CipherTrust Manager is that it provides a central place to create, store, and manage encryption keys for the whole company. Everything in one place makes it organized instead of becoming a messy tangle of different keys used in many spots.
Also, a CipherTrust Manager safely keeps all the keys inside secure hardware devices called hardware security modules (HSMs). HSMs are machines that protect keys by ensuring they are never shown without protection outside of the HSM. The HSM cannot be taken apart or tampered with.
Centralization means keys no longer need to be put into programs or stored on individual computers. This eliminates weaknesses like keys being saved in files or databases that could get stolen or shared by accident. With CipherTrust Manager, you must strongly verify your identity through a website or app to access a key.
Following rules and managing everything makes critical generation, distribution, replacement, cancellation, and destruction easy. It gives complete visibility and control over the keys used across apps, databases, user information, API connections, etc. Auditing and reporting ensure oversight of all critical activities.
Granular access controls
A key management system must have strict rules about who can access or use keys. CipherTrust Manager supports role-based access control (RBAC) with detailed permissions that can be given based on work groups, teams, or specific users. Different user roles determine whether people can view, generate, import, or activate keys. The system also sets whether users can only read or change keys. Controls may allow access to some apps’ keys but block access to others.
Administrator roles separate jobs, so one person cannot handle key activation and auditing, for example. If an employee with key access leaves their job, their login and permissions can quickly be removed using the central dashboard.
CipherTrust Manager’s access management helps follow regulations and protects key material from unauthorized use. Its records and reports provide accountability for all management activities on encryption items, ensuring the right people do the right things with keys.
Encryption policy automation
For encryption to provide security for large groups, the rules for managing keys must follow best practices without needing someone to do tasks by hand. CipherTrust Manager supports automatic policies that take the hard work out of managing encryption daily.
Automated policies regularly perform repeated jobs, like rotating keys on a set schedule. They can also automatically reject weak keys, change keys for passwords at set times, and expire keys after a standard amount of time.
Templates help apply the usual rules to everyone. For example, a template ensures new database fields use strong 256-bit AES encryption with a 90-day key rotation. If encryption needs to change, changes are applied to everything from the template.
Other automatic policies make adding new apps or cloud services easier. Automatic policies also guide the backup/restore process for keys, keeping sure practices without human effort. CipherTrust Manager decreases security risks and provides less work for administrators by automatically following encryption lifecycles according to set rules.
See also: The different types of data encryption explained
Scalable, high-performance architecture
As companies collect more data and use encryption in more places, the need to manage keys grows, too. CipherTrust Manager provides ways to expand and stay reliable to support ongoing growth.
Its flexible design allows adding more appliance nodes to make it larger. Nodes stay together through an active-active group setup, ensuring no single point of failure. If a node has problems, others can instantly take over to keep services running well. Doing tasks in parallel also boosts speed – tests show CipherTrust Manager handles over 250,000 encryption jobs per second.
The solution works with popular remote HSM systems like Luna CloudHSM to expand on demand. Virtual versions offer options to set up on-site, hybrid, or in multiple clouds. CipherTrust Manager’s quick design, immediate copying, and complete disaster backup keep up as encryption use increases across more areas within companies.
Comprehensive audit trail
Sometimes, investigating incidents requires a full record of encryption activities to meet rules. CipherTrust Manager keeps a detailed history of every key management step through its centralized logging and reporting dashboard. All stages of a key’s life — from creation and sharing to rotating, limiting, and deleting — get documented with metadata like date, time, user, and app or system requesting it. This audit log provides clear proof.
CipherTrust Manager’s records provide undeniable evidence and help comply with rules. Its reporting catches policy breaks or suspicious behavior early. Configurable reports let teams or auditors analyze encryption management carefully.
Therefore, for encryption to work well across a company, the key management system must have central control, strict access rules, automatic policies, expansion options, and complete record-keeping. CipherTrust Manager brings all these things together into one strong system. It securely manages encryption keys everywhere and allows them to increase over time and cloud spaces.
