Page 19 – Encryption Consulting

Securing Against Compression Side-Channel Attacks: Threats, Techniques, and Mitigation Strategies

In cybersecurity, side-channel attacks exploit the subtle nuances of a computer system’s physical or software-based characteristics. This approach bypasses direct exploitation of flaws within encryption algorithms or code weaknesses, instead leveraging information leakage from the implementation itself. Among these attacks, compression side-channel attacks stand out as a particularly clever way to bypass security protocols, even in encrypted, high-security environments such as healthcare, finance, and web search platforms that use HTTPS.

These attacks, including well-known variants like CRIME and BREACH, take advantage of data compression to infer sensitive information from the size of the compressed data. By understanding the underlying principles of compression algorithms, attackers can decipher protected data, revealing insights about a user’s interactions with a web application or even their login credentials. Let’s break down how these attacks work, and the techniques used to mitigate them.

How Compression Algorithms Work

Compression algorithms are designed to make data smaller by eliminating redundancies. When a phrase repeats within a text, it is stored only once, and any subsequent instances are replaced by references to the original. This process significantly reduces the overall data size. For example, if a piece of text includes both a user-inputted string and a secret, the compression algorithm can be manipulated to reveal parts of that secret based on the compressed data’s length.

This technique becomes exploitable when the attacker can control some portion of the data and observe the compressed output size. By modifying their input to align with known patterns, attackers can detect which parts of the data are efficiently compressed and thereby infer sensitive information through compression patterns. Two key attacks, CRIME and BREACH, take advantage of these principles but in different ways.

CRIME Attack: Exploiting TLS Compression

In 2012, researchers Thai Duong and Juliano Rizzo revealed the CRIME attack, an attack vector targeting TLS (Transport Layer Security) compression. This side-channel attack allows an attacker to decrypt data by observing the compression ratio of TLS requests, effectively enabling them to capture critical information like session cookies. With access to these cookies, attackers can hijack a user’s session, impersonate them, and gain access to secure web applications such as online banking portals.

To perform a CRIME attack, the attacker needs to inject specific data into a victim’s requests, observe the size of the encrypted traffic, and exploit the compressed data patterns. This attack was mitigated by disabling TLS-level compression, which was seldom used by browsers at the time. Major browsers like Chrome and Firefox released patches soon after the CRIME attack was publicized, rendering this specific threat ineffective by disabling TLS compression.

BREACH Vulnerability: Attacking HTTP-Level Compression

In 2013, the BREACH attack extended the principles of CRIME to HTTP-level compression, making it even more challenging to defend against. Unlike CRIME, which specifically exploited TLS compression, BREACH targets HTTP responses that use compression algorithms like gzip. Presented by researchers Angelo Prado, Neal Harris, and Yoel Gluck at Black Hat USA, BREACH doesn’t depend on any specific version of TLS or SSL, making it a broader threat.

To execute a BREACH attack, an attacker needs three elements:

HTTP-level compression enabled on the server.
Reflection of user inputs in HTTP response bodies.
Sensitive information (such as CSRF tokens) embedded within those HTTP responses.

BREACH works by injecting guesses into the HTTP request and analyzing the length of the compressed response. By carefully crafting requests that include both attacker-controlled and target-specific data, the attacker can use compression patterns to “guess” the contents of sensitive information one character at a time. This is particularly problematic for sites that use gzip compression and do not segregate user data from sensitive information.

For example, if an attacker guesses a character in a CSRF token correctly, the response becomes slightly smaller, indicating that the character is indeed part of the token. Repeating this process can allow the attacker to fully recover a secret like a token within seconds using a few thousand requests.

Real-World Implications and Other Compression Attacks

Beyond CRIME and BREACH, similar attacks like TIME and HEIST further demonstrate how compression-based side channels can reveal data indirectly. TIME and HEIST utilize timing information from the browser to measure data size, enabling attacks without requiring a man-in-the-middle position. These newer methods showcase how compression side-channel vulnerabilities continue to evolve and present a broader range of threats to web applications that rely on HTTP compression.

Given the sensitive nature of the data these attacks can target, particularly in industries like healthcare and finance, it is crucial for web applications to assess the risk and consider implementing mitigation strategies.

Mitigation Strategies

Fortunately, several strategies can reduce the risk of compression side-channel attacks:

Disable Compression: Disabling compression on sensitive pages can fully mitigate this attack vector. However, this approach may reduce page load speeds for users.
Separate User Data and Sensitive Information: By ensuring that sensitive data is never included in responses containing user data, the risk of these attacks is minimized. For example, cookies and CSRF tokens can be kept in separate requests that don’t include user inputs.
Randomize Secrets Per Request: By generating unique CSRF tokens for each request, attackers cannot reuse a previously successful guess.
Masking Secrets: XOR-based masking of sensitive data with random values on each request provides additional protection, as this effectively scrambles the secret with new values each time.
Length Hiding: Adding random bytes to HTTP responses can obscure the exact length, making it difficult for attackers to determine patterns.
Same-Site Cookies: Setting cookies as same-site helps ensure they are only sent in requests from the same domain, mitigating the risk of cross-origin attacks.

While each of these mitigations provides a layer of protection, a combination of strategies is often necessary to protect fully against various forms of compression side-channel attacks.

How can Encryption Consulting help?

Given the evolving nature of attacks like CRIME and BREACH, Encryption Consulting’s Encryption Advisory Services team can provide expert recommendations on best practices, such as disabling compression, separating sensitive data, and implementing strategies like masking secrets or length hiding. Our expertise helps organizations tailor their defences to minimize the risks associated with such vulnerabilities. In an environment where encryption alone isn’t enough, Encryption Consulting ensures that organizations implement the necessary layers of protection to stay ahead of potential threats and secure sensitive information.

Conclusion

Compression side-channel attacks like CRIME and BREACH highlight the need for rigorous security measures even when using industry-standard protocols like HTTPS. These attacks demonstrate that encryption alone is not always enough; additional layers of security are required to safeguard user data in today’s complex web environments.

With proper understanding and mitigation techniques, organizations can reduce their exposure to compression-based attacks and better protect sensitive information from exploitation. As attackers develop more sophisticated techniques, the importance of staying informed and implementing robust security practices becomes all the more essential.

What is Kubernetes?

Introduction to Kubernetes: The Orchestration Powerhouse

Kubernetes, an open-source tool initially developed by Google, is a powerful platform for container orchestration. Container orchestration refers to the automation of deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. Kubernetes simplifies this process by providing a robust framework to run distributed systems effectively, offering better control over application workloads. Its standout features include container autoscaling, load balancing, and self-healing, making it indispensable for modern infrastructure.

Let’s understand its utility with an example. Imagine a company running an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that supports various departments like inventory, HR, and finance. As the company grows, these systems face increasing demand, requiring additional resources to stay responsive. Kubernetes steps in by dynamically scaling containers for each module, balancing resources across servers, and restarting failed services. In essence, it ensures that applications remain highly available and performant even under peak usage.

Kubernetes also performs tasks like health checks, which include monitoring the “liveliness” and “readiness” of applications to ensure they function as intended. Being maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Kubernetes can be deployed almost anywhere: on-premises, in the cloud, or even in hybrid environments.

What is Docker Swarm?

Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration tool for Docker containers. It allows you to deploy and manage multiple containers across a group of machines (known as a swarm). Swarm simplifies container management by enabling developers to set up, scale, and maintain their applications without needing external tools. It provides features like:

Ease of Use: Simple setup and straightforward configuration.
Native Docker Integration: Seamlessly integrates with Docker CLI and ecosystem.
Basic Scaling and Load Balancing: Scales containers and distributes traffic evenly across nodes.

However, Docker Swarm is primarily suited for smaller-scale applications or environments that don’t require advanced orchestration features.

How is Kubernetes Different from Docker Swarm?

While Docker Swarm is useful for simpler container orchestration, Kubernetes offers advanced capabilities better suited for large-scale, production-level applications:

Multi-Node Clusters:
Kubernetes manages applications across clusters of nodes, ensuring high availability and scalability.
Self-Healing:
Automatically restarts or replaces failing containers without manual intervention.
Rolling Updates:
Gradually updates application versions without downtime for seamless transitions.
Load Balancing:
Efficiently distributes network traffic across multiple containers to maintain stability.
Extensive Ecosystem:
Supports integration with various cloud providers and tools, making it highly versatile.
Robust Monitoring:
Provides detailed monitoring and logging for containers and workloads.

In comparison, Docker Swarm is simpler but lacks some of the advanced features that Kubernetes provides, making it less suitable for complex or distributed systems.

Kubernetes Features

Horizontal Scaling
Kubernetes enables horizontal scaling, which means adding more Pods to handle increased workloads. It can be done manually or automatically using the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA).
For example, when a new show is released and user traffic spikes, Kubernetes monitors metrics like CPU or memory usage to decide whether to add more Pods to maintain performance. By defining resource requests and limits, Kubernetes ensures efficient allocation and bin packing of resources, preventing overloading of any single server and optimizing overall usage.
Self-Healing
If a container crashes or a Pod becomes unhealthy, Kubernetes automatically intervenes. The kubelet agent continuously monitors the health of containers using liveness and readiness probes.
- Liveness Probes: Check if the application inside a container is still running. If not, Kubernetes restarts the container.
- Readiness Probes: Verify if a container is ready to serve requests. If it is not ready, traffic is redirected to other healthy Pods.
For example, if a streaming server crashes mid-session, Kubernetes immediately restarts the container or moves users to another healthy Pod, minimizing downtime and maintaining a seamless experience.
Service Discovery and Load Balancing
Kubernetes simplifies how services discover each other and balances traffic across them. It uses DNS-based service discovery by assigning a DNS name to each service. Pods are assigned unique IPs, and Kubernetes ensures that traffic reaches the right destination automatically.

Load Balancing Mechanisms:
- ClusterIP: Exposes the service within the cluster, distributing traffic across Pods.
- NodePort: Allows external access by exposing a port on each Node in the cluster.
- LoadBalancer: Integrates with cloud provider load balancers to distribute external traffic efficiently.
Example: Imagine every user session as a “Pod” on a platform. Kubernetes ensures that each Pod connects to the correct backend server, evenly distributing the load to avoid performance bottlenecks. This ensures users can stream content smoothly, even during peak times.
Storage Orchestration
Kubernetes efficiently manages storage needs by supporting various backends, such as local disks, cloud storage, and network file systems.
- Persistent Volumes (PVs) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs): PVs are pre-provisioned storage resources in the cluster, while PVCs allow applications to request specific storage requirements dynamically.
- Dynamic Provisioning: Kubernetes automates storage allocation through Storage Classes, which define the backend type (e.g., SSD, HDD) for storage requests.
- Container Storage Interface (CSI): Kubernetes uses CSI to integrate third-party storage solutions like AWS EBS, Google Persistent Disk, or NFS, offering flexibility and extensibility for any storage provider.
For example, Kubernetes can automatically attach cloud storage or local volumes to Pods based on PVCs, ensuring that applications seamlessly access the data they need.
Secret and Configuration Management
Kubernetes manages sensitive information, such as API keys, encryption keys, and user credentials, securely using Secrets. These Secrets are base64-encoded but not encrypted by default. Developers can use tools like Kubernetes Secrets Encryption Providers to encrypt them for added security.
For example, if an API key changes, Kubernetes updates the Secrets across the cluster without requiring developers to rebuild or redeploy containers. This ensures sensitive data remains secure and up to date.
Automated Rollouts and Rollbacks
When deploying a new feature, Kubernetes rolls out updates gradually, monitoring stability using metrics like health probes, error rates, and application performance. If it detects any issues, Kubernetes instantly rolls back to the last stable version, ensuring minimal disruption to users. Let us look at what these metrics are.
- Health Probes: Kubernetes checks if containers are healthy with liveness probes (to restart containers) and readiness probes (to ensure readiness for traffic).
- Error Rates: It tracks the number of errors or failed requests to detect potential issues during updates.
- Application Performance: Kubernetes monitors response times, resource usage, and throughput to ensure the application performs as expected.
For example, if a new feature causes slower load times, Kubernetes reverts to the previous version automatically, keeping the platform stable without users noticing.
Automatic Bin Packing
Kubernetes optimizes resource usage by efficiently “packing” containers onto nodes based on their resource requirements. It allocates CPU and memory to each container, ensuring no single node is overloaded.
For example, when launching multiple streaming sessions, Kubernetes balances the load across available servers, maximizing resource usage while preventing performance degradation.
Batch Execution
Kubernetes manages batch jobs using resources like Jobs and CronJobs:
- Jobs: Ensure that tasks, such as analytics or backups, are completed successfully.
- CronJobs: Schedule recurring tasks, like daily data processing.
Example YAML for a Batch Job:
```
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
  name: example-job
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: batch-job
        image: busybox
        command: ["sh", "-c", "echo Hello Kubernetes! && sleep 30"]
      restartPolicy: OnFailure
```
IPv4/IPv6 Dual Stack
Kubernetes supports dual-stack networking, allowing Pods and services to have both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This ensures compatibility with a wide range of user devices and networks.
For example, if users in different regions use either IPv4 or IPv6, Kubernetes assigns compatible Pod IPs and Service IPs to ensure everyone can connect without issues. This dual-stack implementation is especially useful for global applications with diverse user bases.
Designed for extensibility
Kubernetes supports customization through its API and controller mechanisms. Developers can extend Kubernetes by implementing plugins for specific needs:
- Monitoring: You can integrate tools like Prometheus to collect application metrics and display them on dashboards. This is done through the Kubernetes API to manage and expose monitoring data.
- Storage: Using Container Storage Interface (CSI) plugins, Kubernetes can integrate third-party storage solutions like AWS EBS or NFS, enabling dynamic volume provisioning.

Architecture of Kubernetes

Kubernetes architecture is a set of machines (or virtual machines or cloud instances) that work together to manage, deploy, and orchestrate containerized applications. We can organize these machines into two main types: Control Plane (Master) and Worker Nodes.

Control Plane (Master Node): The control plane directs the worker to what and how to run the machines. Consider the control plane as the Main thread or the Project manager on a new product team. The Control Plane would instruct the worker nodes with specific tasks. The API Scheduler assigns the Pods in the Worker node as per the application’s needs. So, Control Plane manages the task assignment, and the resources needed to perform those tasks. It manages the cluster rather than executing anything on its own.
Worker Nodes: These machines (or virtual instances) are running machines for your containerized applications. Working on the above example only, Worker nodes would be the real developers and the operations team members. They are assigned each task and are required to perform that well. Each worker node in the Kubernetes cluster has its own individual Pod (like individual tasks), and similarly, kubelet is there to monitor that everything is going on as planned. If something fails, the failure must be reported directly to the Control Plane. Control Plane also has Kube proxy and container runtime, as discussed below. Remember, the worker node is the place where the real execution happens.

Now let us see what lies inside of them:

Control Plane Components

API Server: The API Server is the entry point for all requests to the Kubernetes cluster. It processes commands and interacts with other components to execute them.
etcd: It is the persistent storage where Kubernetes stores its cluster state, configurations, and metadata.
When the API Server receives a request to change the cluster state (e.g., adding a new Pod), it updates the data in etcd to reflect that change. etcd acts as the source of truth, so if any component of the cluster needs to know the current state (such as which Pods are running or the status of deployments), it can query etcd.
This interaction ensures that the Kubernetes cluster remains consistent, even in the event of failures. If a control plane component restarts, it can always retrieve the latest cluster state from etcd to resume operations smoothly.
Controller Manager: Ensures the cluster stays in its ideal state, fixing issues like node failures automatically.

Worker Nodes Components

Kubelet: The worker bee of Kubernetes, ensuring the pods on each node run correctly.
Container Runtime: Runs the containers with tools like Docker; they are responsible for loading images from the repository or isolating and even managing the resources for container use. They are also responsible for maintaining the container lifecycle.
Kube-proxy: Manages networking, ensuring smooth communication between services and pods.

Kubernetes Objects

Objects	Description	Example Use Cases
Pods	Small units holding one or more containers that work together.	Running an instance of a web server, like Nginx or Apache, in a containerized environment.
Services	Give pods a consistent way to communicate.	Connecting a frontend web app to a backend API via a service.
Volumes	Provide persistent storage for data.	Providing durable storage for stateful applications like databases.
ConfigMaps/Secrets	Store config data and sensitive info securely.	Configuring environment variables for an application, like database connection strings or feature toggles.
ReplicaSets	Tied to Windows. Keeps the correct number of pods running.	Maintaining five replicas of a web server for high availability and load balancing.
Deployments	Handle updates and rollbacks for your pods.	Rolling out a new version of a shopping cart microservice with zero downtime.
DaemonSets	Ensure certain pods run on all nodes.	Running logging or monitoring agents like Fluentd or Prometheus Node Exporter on every cluster node.
StatefulSets	Manage stable identities for stateful apps.	Deploying a database like MongoDB or MySQL, where each instance requires its own persistent volume.
Jobs/CronJobs	Run tasks either once or on a schedule.	Running a database backup or processing analytics data at a scheduled time.

Networking and Load Balancing

Cluster Networking: Pods get their own IPs without manual configuration.
Service Networking: Handles load balancing and traffic routing.
Ingress: In Kubernetes, it is a resource that manages external HTTP/HTTPS traffic and routes it to the appropriate services inside the cluster. It acts as a reverse proxy, allowing you to define how external requests should be forwarded to internal microservices based on the URL or host.
For example, in an e-commerce application, you can configure Ingress to direct traffic to different microservices like user authentication, product catalog, or order management based on the requested URL (e.g., www.example.com/login for authentication, www.example.com/products for the catalog).
Additionally, Ingress can manage SSL/TLS termination, ensuring that connections are secure by encrypting traffic between the user and the application. This provides a single, centralized point of entry for all external traffic, simplifying both traffic management and security enforcement.

Kubernetes in DevOps: Enabling Automation with Efficiency

Kubernetes and DevOps are such things you can always place them together. It’s crazy how Kubernetes can take care of repetitive tasks, like deploying and scaling apps, all on its own! It has features like self-healing, autoscaling, and rollback. Thus, you can always have your application up. This is Automation using Kubernetes.

It’s a shared platform where developers can containerize apps, and operations teams can manage them easily. Plus, with built-in logs and monitoring, everyone stays in the loop, promoting a continuous feedback cycle. Whether you’re deploying on a cloud or in a data center, Kubernetes offers a uniform interface. This consistency means less friction for teams, no matter where they work from. It proves that Kubernetes helps in Collaboration and provides consistency.

Kubernetes in CI/CD Pipelines

Kubernetes integrates with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, and Travis CI to automate the deployment and scaling of applications. When using Jenkins, Kubernetes can scale resources based on the workload and deploy containerized applications automatically. If anything goes wrong, Kubernetes can roll back quickly to the last stable version to keep the system running smoothly.

Similarly, with GitLab, Kubernetes helps manage deployments, scaling, and configuration directly from the pipeline. Kubernetes ensures the infrastructure remains consistent across all environments and new containers are deployed without any disruption. CircleCI and Travis CI also work seamlessly with Kubernetes, automating the process of building, testing, and deploying applications. Kubernetes handles the orchestration and scaling of containers, ensuring applications are always up-to-date and reliable.

Kubernetes makes your infrastructure immutable, meaning once the application is containerized, it remains unchanged. Kubernetes takes care of updates by deploying new containers without affecting the system’s stability, ensuring fast, reliable deployments with minimal downtime.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Kubernetes

Declarative Configuration: You describe the system’s desired state (how many pods, resources, etc.) in YAML or JSON files, and Kubernetes adjusts things automatically to match.
Version Control & GitOps: Kubernetes works with GitOps by keeping all configurations in Git. When you make changes in Git, tools like ArgoCD or Flux automatically apply them to the Kubernetes cluster. This ensures the cluster stays in sync with what’s in Git. If something goes wrong, you can easily roll back to the previous version. GitOps helps track changes, makes deployments faster, and keeps everything consistent.
Consistency Across Environments: Kubernetes gives you the benefit of defining infrastructure once and then you can use it across dev, staging, and production environments, ensuring consistency and fewer errors.

Key Use Cases for Kubernetes

Kubernetes simplifies scaling by automatically adjusting applications based on demand, ensuring smooth performance during traffic spikes. In high-performance computing, it handles complex tasks and optimizes resources, improving performance in fields like finance and research. For example, TensorFlow training jobs can scale across multiple nodes with Kubernetes, managing large datasets efficiently.

Kubernetes solves challenges in high-performance computing by optimizing resource allocation, job scheduling, and fault tolerance, reducing bottlenecks and downtime. In microservices management, Kubernetes ensures self-healing and auto-redeploy features. If a microservice fails, Kubernetes restarts it, keeping services available and reducing manual intervention. It also enables independent scaling of microservices, speeding up development cycles. Kubernetes automates development processes, helping move applications seamlessly between on-prem and cloud environments, supporting hybrid and multi-cloud flexibility.

Guardians of the Cluster: PKI and TLS/SSL in your Kubernetes

In Kubernetes, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and TLS/SSL certificates are very integrated and are crucial features. Let’s dive into why they are so important and where exactly they fit into the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Why do PKI and TLS/SSL Matter in Kubernetes?

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and TLS/SSL certificates work as the first line of defense of your cluster, ensuring that only trusted entities gain access. They encrypt communication, establish trust, and prevent unauthorized access thus, keeping your Kubernetes environment safe.

Steps to Implement PKI and TLS/SSL Certificates in Kubernetes

Step 1: Set Up a Certificate Authority (CA)

To begin, you need to set up a Certificate Authority (CA) that will sign your certificates. This can either be a self-signed CA or a trusted external CA. You will first generate a private key for the CA and then create a root certificate that is signed by the CA.

Step 2: Generate Server and Client Certificates

After setting up the CA, the next step is to create server and client certificates. Start by generating a private key for the server. Then, create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the server and have it signed by your CA. If needed, you can also generate and sign a client certificate for secure client authentication.

Step 3: Store Certificates in Kubernetes Secrets

Once you have generated the server and client certificates, store them securely in Kubernetes Secrets. These secrets will hold the server’s private key and the signed certificate, allowing your Kubernetes services to use them for encrypted communication.

Step 4: Configure Kubernetes Services to Use TLS

Next, configure your Kubernetes services to use TLS certificates. This involves referencing the secrets created in the deployed YAML files for your services, ensuring they use the certificates for encrypted communication.

Step 5: Verify TLS Setup

Finally, verify that the TLS setup works correctly by testing the service’s connection. Use tools such as curl or OpenSSL to ensure that the service uses the certificates for secure, encrypted communication.

Securing Communication with TLS Certificates

Kubernetes relies on TLS (Transport Layer Security) to encrypt all communication between its components, such as nodes, pods, and services. K8s safeguards your cluster and data by using PKI and TLS Certificates. Whether it is traffic between the Kubernetes API server and the cluster’s components or communications between services, TLS certificates make sure everything stays encrypted and private. In a nutshell, TLS certificates are like a protective shield that keeps all communication within Kubernetes safe from eavesdroppers and attackers.

PKI is at the heart of trust in Kubernetes. It is the framework that manages digital certificates and cryptographic keys. In Kubernetes, PKI certificates serve as the digital ID cards for all the components, helping them verify each other’s identity. This trust is established between different entities, such as:

Nodes and the API server
Kubelets and the control plane
Users accessing the cluster
Services within the cluster

Without PKI, Kubernetes would not have a way to confirm that each piece of the system is who it says it is. Imagine trying to run a cluster where anyone could impersonate another service or user; chaos, right?

Where Do TLS/SSL Certificates Fit in Kubernetes?

In Kubernetes, TLS/SSL certificates are used in various critical areas:

API Server: The API server is the brain of Kubernetes, and it needs TLS certificates to securely communicate with users and other components.
Kubelet: Each node’s Kubelet, which is responsible for managing containers, uses TLS certificates to establish secure connections with the API server.
Etcd: The etcd server, which stores cluster data, also uses TLS to ensure that all communications remain confidential.
Services: Any service exposed to external traffic, or internally between pods, can be secured with TLS certificates to avoid data interception. Kubernetes automatically generates many of these certificates when using tools like Kubeadm, but you can also bring your own certificates if you want more control over the security.

Preventing Unauthorized Access

Authentication and Authorization: PKI and TLS certificates ensure only trusted users, services, or components can interact with Kubernetes resources, blocking unauthorized entities.
Client Certificates: These certificates verify the identity of entities interacting with the cluster, ensuring secure access and reducing risks of impersonation or unauthorized access.
Production Security: In high-stakes production environments, PKI and TLS certificates are critical in preventing breaches that could lead to data exposure or operational failure.

Challenges of Managing Certificates

Lifecycle Management: Keeping track of certificate renewals, expirations, and distribution across all Kubernetes components can be complex and error prone.
Cert-Manager Solution: Tools like cert-manager automate certificate issuance, renewal, and management, reducing human error and ensuring certificates are always up to date.
Simplifying Security: By automating certificate processes, CertSecure manager helps maintain consistent security throughout the cluster without the hassle of manual management. You can get a view of our CLM product right here.

Kubernetes Security Risks and Best Practices

Kubernetes is a robust container orchestration platform. However, there is always the risk of security, no matter how strong your platform is, right? So, now let us investigate the key attack vectors and risks and the best practices one must follow!

Top Kubernetes Security Risks	Risk	Best Practice	Tools to Use
Misconfigured Cluster	Weak or default access controls can allow unauthorized users to manipulate the cluster.	Use strong authentication and authorization, regularly audit access, and apply robust network policies.	Kube-bench, OPA/Gatekeeper
Vulnerable Container Images	Using outdated or unverified container images can introduce malware or other security issues.	Only pull images from trusted repositories, perform regular vulnerability scans, and frequently update containers.	Trivy, Clair
Insider Threats	Compromised or malicious insiders can exploit their access to the cluster.	We shall use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to limit permissions and divide duties. Monitoring of activities should also be done.	Falco, Audit Logs
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks	Attackers can exhaust the cluster’s resources, thus denial of service.	Use resource quotas and network protection mechanisms to limit the impact of DoS attacks.	Kube-proxy, Calico
Pod-to-Pod Communication	Insufficient network segmentation allows lateral movement across compromised pods.	Encrypt pod communication using TLS and apply network segmentation to isolate sensitive workloads.	Istio, Cilium
Insecure API Endpoints	API endpoints exposed to the public can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access.	Secure your API endpoints with proper authentication and then restrict access, and don’t forget to regularly audit API traffic.	OAuth2 Proxy, Kubeaudit
Container Breakouts	Attackers exploiting vulnerabilities within containers can escape into the host system.	Apply strong isolation practices, update container runtimes, and harden the underlying host system.	gVisor, Kata Containers
Weak Secrets Management	Sensitive data stored in plain text or inadequately encrypted secrets can be exposed.	Use the Kubernetes Secrets API with strong encryption methods and enforce strict access control for secret data.	Vault, Sealed Secrets
Software Supply Chain Attacks	You’ve got a problem if you have compromised third-party dependencies or container images. They introduce backdoors and vulnerabilities into the cluster.	Implement strict control over the software supply chain, including verifying image signatures and using trusted sources for container images.	Cosign, Notary
Privilege Escalation	If roles are misconfigured, vulnerabilities will allow attackers to enhance their privileges inside the cluster.	You should apply the principle of least privilege and frequently review the access permissions.	Kube-bench, RBAC Manager

How Encryption Consulting Can Help

Encryption Consulting secures Kubernetes clusters with tailored services like PKI implementation, certificate lifecycle management, and Secrets management. Our products, such as CodeSign Secure for secure code signing and Key Management solutions, ensure sensitive data is protected. We offer TLS setup, API security, and compliance audits, ensuring robust data security and Kubernetes resilience for on-premises or cloud deployments.

Conclusion

Kubernetes is a powerful tool that simplifies container orchestration, making it indispensable for modern DevOps and application management. From automating deployments to ensuring high availability, features of K8s are applied everywhere. With Kubernetes, you not only streamline your operations but also enhance security through integrated PKI and TLS support.

Want to dive deeper into the world of security, PKI, Cloud, Certificates, etc.? Be sure to explore more insightful blogs at the Encryption Consulting Education Center. Get customized training from our experts, and stay tuned for the latest trends and tips to elevate your tech game!

Unlock the Power of On-Demand HSM Training for Luna 7 and nShield HSM

The global hardware security modules market size was estimated at USD 1.56 billion in 2023 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 16.3% from 2024 to 2030. This tremendous growth only highlights the need for increasing demand for HSM expertise, which is slowly becoming necessary with growing security threats and stringent compliance requirements. In that regard, and to further facilitate even greater ease and accessibility in HSM expertise, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our On-Demand Training for HSMs, available from September 30, 2024 for Both Thales Luna 7 HSM and Entrust nShield HSM.

Our on-demand HSM training is designed to perfectly align with the current security and regulatory requirements of today and provides all the necessary information, from the basic architecture of the HSM that gives a complete overview of the basics to the advanced configurations and preparation for disaster recovery scenarios.

Why are HSMs critical for your organization?

HSMs are hardware security modules that securely manage and store encryption keys. These encryption keys are essential to many different security standards, including those that safeguard sensitive information.

Here’s why HSMs are critical for modern enterprises:

Data Protection: HSMs safeguard sensitive data by ensuring that encryption keys are stored and processed in a secure, tamper-resistant environment.
Regulatory Compliance Requirements: Many industries, including finance, healthcare, and government, have strict regulations requiring HSMs to ensure data integrity and security.
Secure Digital Transactions: As more business processes move online, the need to secure digital transactions become increasingly important. HSMs are essential for protecting e-commerce, digital payments, and financial services.
Enhanced Security current Security Posture: With HSMs, organizations can ensure that their encryption and decryption processes occur within a highly secure, dedicated hardware device, reducing vulnerabilities and attacks.

However, being proficient with HSMs is becoming more and more challenging with the introduction of advanced features of HSMs and the growing security threats that challenge the security of HSMs. It requires in-depth knowledge of key management, cryptography and an understanding of how HSMs fit into larger IT systems and enterprise-level Infrastructure. That’s where our on-demand HSM training comes into play.

What Makes Our On-Demand HSM Training Exclusive?

Our on-demand HSM training courses for Thales Luna HSMs and Entrust nShield HSMs have been created with real-world application, flexibility, and depth in mind. For anyone wanting to learn about HSMs or enhance their HSM knowledge, the following reasons make this training an ideal choice:

1. Comprehensive Coverage of HSM Topics

Our training covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of cryptography and key management to advanced HSM configurations and integrations. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced professional looking to deepen your knowledge, we’ve got you covered with these core topics

Introduction to Cryptography: Understand the fundamentals of encryption, decryption, and cryptographic algorithms.
Key Management: Learn how to securely generate, store, and distribute cryptographic keys using Luna and nShield HSMs.
HSM Architecture: Learn about the structure and functionality of Luna and nShield HSMs and how they protect against tampering and attacks.
Implementing HSMs in Enterprise Systems: Get practical insights on integrating HSMs into your IT infrastructure and business processes.
Regulatory and Compliance Standards: Understanding the legal and regulatory requirements for using HSMs in different industries and learning to implement the necessary steps to meet these compliance standards.

2. Hands-on, Lab Exercises

We believe the best way to learn is by implementing your learnings. Our training includes interactive modules, real-world case studies, and hands-on lab exercises where you can apply what you’ve learned in a controlled environment. This ensures that you not only understand the theory but also gain practical knowledge that can be implemented in your organization.

3. Certification Exam

After completion of all the training modules of Luna HSM and nShield HSM training programs, you can test the knowledge gained during the training program to get certified.

4. Flexible Learning Anytime, Anywhere

With our on-demand model, you can learn at your own pace from anywhere in the world. This flexibility is ideal for busy professionals who may not have the time for traditional, in-person training sessions. Whether you want to dedicate an entire day or just a few hours per week, the learning schedule is entirely in your control.

5. Expert-Led Instruction

Our courses are developed and delivered by industry-leading experts with years of experience in cryptography and HSMs. You’ll learn directly from professionals who have worked with global organizations to secure critical digital infrastructure, including PKI and critical databases.

6. Affordable

Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, our on-demand training is priced competitively, making it an affordable solution for teams of all sizes.

Who Should Enroll?

Our on-demand HSM training is perfect for a wide range of professionals, from beginners to advanced security professionals including:

IT Security Managers: Ensure your team is up to date with the latest encryption technologies and regulatory requirements.
Network Administrators: Learn how to secure your organization’s network using HSMs for key management and secure communications.
Compliance Officers: Stay compliant with industry regulations by mastering the use of HSMs to protect sensitive data.
Developers and Architects: Gain a deeper understanding of how to integrate HSMs securely into your applications and systems, including Code Signing activities.

Why Now is the Perfect Time for You to Enroll in an HSM Training!

There are 2 billion HSM users in the world, but only less than 1% know how to operate them. The efficient working of HSMs is not just required for the secure cryptographic storage of keys but also plays an important role in meeting multiple compliance requirements from GDPR in Europe to FIPS 140-2/140-3 in the USA. A good understanding of HSMs is important for people responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of HSMs, and that’s why this on-demand HSM training course for Thales Luna 7 HSM and Entrust’s nShield HSM has been developed for organizations and individuals looking to upskill their knowledge of HSMs. 

Additionally, cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated, and the stakes for businesses have never been higher. In fact, a study by Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that global cybercrime costs will reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. As these threats evolve, so should the tools and skills we use to protect our digital assets.

By investing in HSM training now, you’re ensuring that your organization stays ahead of the curve. Whether you’re looking to safeguard financial transactions, protect customer data, or meet regulatory compliance standards, HSMs are a critical component of your security infrastructure and having the right expertise to manage your HSMs ensure that your HSMs are always working securely and efficiently.

Our on-demand training allows you to equip your team with the skills they need to navigate the increasing security complexities of HSMs without the time constraints and cost of traditional training methods.

Get Ready and Register!

Our On-Demand HSM training is now live, and we couldn’t be more excited! Now, you’ll be able to access two top-tier training content for Thales Luna 7 HSM and Entrust nShield HSM that will empower you to take control of your organization’s security infrastructure like never before.

Get ready to build your expertise and get certified with our HSM training. It is designed to help you better understand HSMs and equip you with the knowledge you need to manage them efficiently and add a greater level of security to your organization.

Are Code Repositories Safe for Your Source Code?

You must have heard about source code repositories at least once in your lifetime. These repos are simply shared storage locations among developers who update them with the latest code and fixes. Organizations tend to prefer these repositories for better management and collaboration when working on software projects, which reduces the risk of losing code or using outdated versions, so it is preferred to go for version control systems like – Git.

You might be wondering why you would trust another platform to securely store your code files, whether these repos are actually safe, and what to keep in mind when dealing with code repositories.

Using code repositories is an industry practice, but there have been a few cases that have made organizations more cautious when dealing with source code repository platforms. These repos have become an easy source of cyber frauds as sometimes attackers can find some sensitive information in codebases like passwords, API tokens, and much more. These code repositories can also lead to supply chain attacks, causing significant financial losses, reputation damage, and business operation disruption.

However, this exposure of code repositories to cyber frauds and threats can be avoided easily using code signing procedures and some industry-trusted practices. Read on to learn about the benefits and threats these repositories possess. You will know about several cases where the big players in this industry were compromised, what the consequences were, how code signing can help, and what the best practices are that you should follow when pushing your code to a source code repository.

Introduction

A code repository, or a version control repository, is a space where developers can store and manage their source code files. It allows multiple people to work on the project and tracks each developer’s changes. Code repositories benefit organizations working on projects, especially with large teams, as they act as a centralized hub to manage and review the codebase changes. However, without proper policies and security measures, these repos can become the target locations for a potential cyber-attack.

You may think that your code doesn’t contain any personal information that could lead to an attack and is of less importance. However, this data, when combined with active scrutiny techniques, can be leveraged to target the user for something much bigger than imagined. These include credential theft, social engineering, infrastructural attacks, and many more. Then you might be thinking. Do you really need code repositories? Simply put, yes.

Code repositories are the best way to handle project files. They just require a safe, secure, and industry-followed approach. But before we discuss the best practices for using code repositories, let’s examine a few vulnerabilities that have occurred in the past when working with source code repos.

Why shouldn’t you blindly trust a code repository?

There are many code repo platforms available, each offering diverse features and capabilities, but your codebase’s security and safety depend on the choice you make for your repository platform. Developers across the world prefer these well-known and trusted platforms, such as GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, and many others. Still, even some of these reliable online hosts couldn’t prevent cyber-attacks in the past. For instance, in 2023, GitHub reported that an unauthorized user gained access to their system and stole three code signing certificates.

GitHub was quick on their part and revoked all the stolen certificates. Now, let’s think of what would happen if GitHub didn’t find the theft of these certificates. There could be numerous scenarios that would have affected customers worldwide, such as attackers could have misused the certificate to sign malicious software, or they could have created fraudulent certificates, and much more.

Another common practice followed by developers is installing packages from open-source code repositories. When a developer’s application requires a dependency, he can utilize the packages already created by others and use them in his application. But sometimes, attackers publish these code packages to infiltrate the user’s application. In a recent incident, trojanized jQuery packages were pushed on npm (Node Package Manager), GitHub, and jsDelivr code repos. These trojanized packages lead to dependency confusion attacks.

It is a type of software supply chain attack where attackers deploy infected code instead of legitimate software dependency. These modified dependency packages would then be installed and used by the developers, giving the attacker the freedom to do whatever he wants. Around 68 infected packages were published from May 26 to June 23, 2024.

You should know every detail of the code or package when using it from a third-party platform. These repositories are a very easy point of target for an attack, and even though these code repository platforms provide the utmost security service to you, generally, it is the software developer’s mistake of using unknown codes available online that leads to devastating cyber incidents.

Methods of affecting a code repository

These attacks can take place in several ways but can also be avoided if the user pays more attention to minor details and questions the authenticity of each repo. Every time a developer wants to access some code available on the internet, he should ask himself whether other developers are using the repo, when the last update was, and whether this repo was deleted before by the developer and then reinstated by some other programmer.

Such basic questions can help you reduce the chances of using a vulnerable code in your project. Here are a few techniques through which the attackers disguise their code and gain access to your personal information.

Typosquatting Technique
It is one of the most popular strategies for infiltrating a system. Here, the attacker registers a package or code repository name that is very similar to the famously used repos, only slightly altering the name. This technique has also worked on domain names. For example, attackers will just tweak the domain to “www.g00gle.com” instead of “www.google.com.”

In a research conducted by JFrog’s security team on the PyPI (Python Package Index), which is a repo for software for Python language, the revival hijack technique can be used to hijack 22K current PyPI packages. How this works is that once a popular project repo is deleted from the PyPI platform, attackers can easily take that repo name and publish a new code for that package, and if the user doesn’t notice the change in the repo, he will be using an infected code for his software application.

By leveraging typosquatting and similar strategies, attackers take advantage of the developers’ trust. This makes it so crucial and important to verify the authenticity of any code or packages retrieved from the internet, especially when these closely resemble established names or have been reintroduced after deletion.
Credential Theft
One of the easiest ways to get a cyber-attack is if a developer serves the authentication data on the code repository. This might seem like a minor, obvious thing to avoid, but it can slip from the user’s mind very easily. Any type of credentials, tokens, or API keys can be used to attempt unauthorized access to the developer’s environment.

If you think your account doesn’t have very important information that the attacker will not be able to take advantage of, you are wrong! He will use this password to know more about you and try to guess the passwords of your other, more important, accounts like bank profiles, social media profiles, and more. To prevent such attacks, GitHub has provided powerful repo-scanning tools like TruffleHog and Git-Secrets. These tools detect and prevent secrets from being uploaded to a git code repository.
Cloning and Modifying repositories
While these code repositories provide centralized access to everyone, public repos also allow developers to contribute their code by creating pull requests. If the repo owner doesn’t properly check the code in the request and merges it, users can be blind-sighted and will be sitting ducks when they use that repository code or files in their applications.

Code review policies should include thorough processes to ensure effective evaluation and approval of code changes. These should include clear guidelines on procedures like rework and resubmission, version control practices, documentation requirements, and much more.

It was reported in early 2024 that over 100,000 GitHub repositories were infected with malicious code. You can automate code analysis on pull requests by implementing solutions like SonarQube. It is an open-source platform that will help you improve the quality of your code.

There can be many other techniques that are still undiscovered by researchers and are in play, but if you have simple, basic knowledge of the preventive measures when deploying your codebases in the code repository, these attacks can be easily avoided.

Best Practices

Whether simply storing files in code repositories or implementing CI/CD pipelines, everything on the web requires the utmost security measures and procedures. Here are some of the best practices that a developer must follow to protect his code repository from being infected.

Code repository hosts provide many security features like dependency scanning, automated vulnerability scanning, and more to protect your codebase. A developer should enable such features that will provide him with an alert or notification when sensitive information is uploaded to the repo or an untrusted dependency is being used in the code.
Every organization must enable strong authentication methods like 2FA on all the repository accounts. This will provide an extra layer of protection, even if the credentials are exposed to an unauthorized user.
Keep up with dependency updates and regularly check your code files to maintain code integrity.
When working in a team on a project, limit access to the code repository to track the modifications made to the repo.
Do not store environment or config files in a code repository. Developers should clearly understand which data is private and which can be made public.
Developers should implement repository scanning tools like TruffleHog and Git-secrets to find existing secrets and prevent future commits with sensitive information.
Always enforce code signing for commits to ensure the code’s authenticity. Every repo owner must look for the cryptographic signature when a developer tries to push a new code to a repo. These signatures simply tell the users that this software file is released by an authorized and credible organization that can be trusted to use.
Every organization or code repository owner should have an incident response plan. Such a plan will help reduce the impact of a cyber-attack on your organization and your customers.

These practices will help prevent attackers from gaining access to your code repositories. But what if you can check your code before publishing it in a repo? What if the developer can check and scan his code for vulnerabilities? What if he can check that his code on the repository is not already infected? Encryption Consulting’s CodeSign Secure will provide all these features that will reduce your efforts and save time verifying each aspect of your code.

Encryption Consulting’s CodeSign secure

CodeSign Secure is a platform designed to digitally sign your files and attach an authentic stamp to your software. Its features, such as reproducible build and pre/post hash validation, will help you verify that your code in the repository has not been modified by an unknown user. CodeSign Secure seamlessly integrates with many CI/CD pipelines such as Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab, TeamCity, Bamboo, and many more to automate the process of code signing, which is very useful when working on large projects with multiple developers.

CodeSign Secure also provides features like vulnerability scanning, including static code analysis (SAST) and dependency scanning (SCA), which reports all the anomalies in your codebase, scans all the dependencies used, and only allows you to sign your files when no vulnerabilities exist. These scans are preventive measures that ensure the developer that safe code is being pushed to a code repository. CodeSign Secure will enhance your organization’s software security, build trust with your users, and help you become compliant with industry practices and regulations.

Conclusion

Despite many security incidents with code repositories, it is still considered the best-working and industry-preferred method. Code repos are vulnerable to cyber-attacks only when the developers don’t pay attention to what is being uploaded and stored in these repositories. These attackers can only take advantage when you allow them to do so. If you follow the best security measures, perform routine code scanning, and only deploy safe, signed code, you can easily avoid thefts on your source code repo.

Why Organizations Need PKI-as-a-Service

The 91-minute digital certificate outage caused the Bank of England’s Real Time Gross Settlement System to halt transactions worth $6 trillion, and here we are still wondering whether automating CA-agnostic certificate management is necessary to maintain digital trust.
You have likely interacted with PKI without even realizing it- whether logging into your online banking app, accessing secure Government portals, or sending a secure email. So, what exactly is PKI? At its core, PKI is the backbone of digital certificates and enables public key cryptography, which powers secure authentication and encryption for users, machines, and applications.

With more IoT devices swooping in the market- over 15 billion expected this year alone, PKI is becoming even more critical in securing these devices. Managing PKI using traditional methods is becoming a complex task. That’s where PKI as a Service comes into play!

Why is it time to re-think PKIaaS as a better choice for your organization?

PKIaaS offers a cost-saving, scalable, and time-efficient solution to PKI management. Think of it as outsourcing the heavy lifting of your PKI infrastructure, allowing you to focus on your core operations without worrying about the intricate details of managing certificates and keys manually. Please find more information about the difference between traditional PKI and PKI-as-a-Service in this blog.

Deploying and managing in-house PKI seems like a reliable solution, but it often requires extensive resources and expertise. You are dealing with multiple Certificate Authorities, complex configurations, and the need for constant monitoring. Many organizations find that handling all of this internally can be a bit overwhelming.

That is where PKI-as-a-Service brings a change as it involves deploying and managing an organization’s Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) on a cloud-based platform, ensuring your PKI setup is secure and continuously up-to-date. This service handles the entire PKI lifecycle, from setting up a Certificate Authority (CA) to issuing, managing, and revoking end-entity certificates for user’s devices or domains.

The major drivers behind the growth of PKIaaS in the global market

The outage at RTGS is not the first time. A previous 39-minute RTGS outage in January 2024 was caused by a certificate authority issue vaguely tied to AWS certificate authority changes, and most importantly, with the upcoming changes to TLS certificate validity, reducing it from 398 days to 90 days, will quadruple the workload for organizations using manual certificate management, increasing the risk of future breaches and outages.

In the below-mentioned points, let’s understand why PKIaaS is considered a more efficient choice for your organization

Follow PKI best practices
Every PKI deployment starts with a Certification Policy (CP) and Certification Practice Statements (CPS) customized to handle your organization’s security requirements. This means you get the PKI from scratch without the hassle of actually building it in your on-premises environment. It ensures and automates the certificate enrollment and issuance process along with the supported protocols, such as ACME, SCEP, and WSTEP.
Ease of deployment
Setting up a dedicated offline root in a highly secure environment ensures your organization’s security foundation is rock solid from day one. Once your PKI is built, we move to the deployment phase, and not just in any way, but with high availability and HSM-backed issuing CAs running in a single-tenant cloud instance. So, you’re not sharing resources with anyone else- it’s all dedicated to your organization. You get the security of the cloud but without the noise of shared infrastructure.
24/7 Maintenance
From managing Certificate Authorities (CAs), Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs), firewalls, to patching- maintaining a PKI is a lot to handle. But with the cloud-based platform of PKIaaS it becomes easy to maintain with regular alerts and up-to-date notifications, allowing your IT teams to focus on more strategic work, like driving business value instead of managing PKI around the clock.
Centralized control
Your teams will be able to issue, deploy, and manage certificates using a single, easy-to-use UI. No need for complex setups or tons of technical knowledge. Whether it’s issuing certificates for users, machines, or applications, you have everything you need in one place. You’re empowered to manage your PKI without the hassle of dealing with the background details.
Strict data protection regulations
In March 2024, American Express card data was exposed to a third-party data breach. Although not affecting American Express’ internal systems, the breach may have compromised certain cardholders’ details, such as card numbers, names, and expiration dates. This underlines the importance of regulatory compliance, such as NIST, FIPS, GDPR, etc, which demands strong authentication and encryption, simplified by PKIaaS by providing secure, managed PKI solutions that adapt to these ever-changing regulations.

How does PKI-as-a-Service help with Zero Trust?

The key behind the zero trust strategies is the ability to automate certificate management. Think about the number of devices, applications, and users that constantly interact within your environment. Many of these devices are ephemeral- like containers in DevOps workflows, which might only exist for minutes or hours. The complexity only increases with certificates coming from multiple sources owned by different teams.

With PKIaaS, you get automated deployment, discovery, management, and renewal of certificates. No more manually tracking down certificates across the enterprise or worrying about expirations slipping through the cracks. Everything is streamlined and centralized.

So, let’s consider a scenario where you have certificates for SSL/TLS, S/MIME, Code Signing, IoT devices, each with its own unique lifecycle, issued by different CAs. Trying to handle that manually can be cumbersome. But PKIaaS takes care of it all in the background. Whether you’re using ACME, SCEP, or custom APIs, PKIaaS integrates seamlessly into your existing tools and workflows, like DevOps pipelines or your IoT deployments.

Deployment
Certificates need to be deployed instantly and automatically, particularly for DevOps teams using CI/CD pipelines with tools like Jenkins, Chef, and Ansible. PKIaaS allows you to integrate directly with these tools so certificates can be deployed, managed, and updated without human intervention.

And it’s not just about convenience. As cryptography evolves, maintaining crypto-agility is crucial. Take quantum computing, for example. Right now, quantum computers aren’t powerful enough to break 2048-bit RSA encryption, but they’re getting closer. Between 2019 and 2022, the estimated number of qubits required to break RSA encryption fell dramatically from 1 billion to just 20 million. So, the need to quickly migrate your environment to new cryptographic standards in the future is very real.
Discovery
One of the biggest challenges that organizations face is the discovery of existing certificates. Most organizations aren’t starting from scratch, and they already have a lot of certificates spread across the environment. The problem is that many of these are outside the IT team’s control, especially with developer teams scattered throughout the business.

PKIaaS solves this by automating discovery. It can find all the certificates across your environment, assess them for things like key length and expiration dates, and bring them under a centralized management platform. This makes it easy for your IT team to ensure compliance, improve security, and replace any certificates that don’t meet corporate standards.
Renewal
With new updates and improved security standards, certificates might only last days or weeks. Manually renewing certificates in such a short cycle can lead to human error. You might remember a recent incident where a collaboration platform went down simply because an admin forgot to renew a certificate, resulting in a major outage.

PKIaaS offers automated renewal processes. It assesses whether the certificate is still valid, ensuring it’s being used appropriately before renewing. This minimizes the risk of renewing certificates that aren’t needed and ensures service isn’t disrupted.
Management
The ultimate goal here is centralized governance. A modern PKIaaS solution offers a single pane of glass where all your certificates, whether for websites, devices, or code signing, are managed centrally.

Additionally, it integrates with different CAs, whether internal or external, giving you the option to issue certificates based on your specific use cases. For example, while many organizations use Microsoft as a CA for their Windows devices, that’s just one piece of the puzzle. A modern PKIaaS can manage those certificates alongside certificates from other CAs, all under one roof.

The S in PKIaaS also stands for:

These four core features really highlight why PKIaaS is the future of certificate management: Scale, Speed, Simplicity, and Security. Let’s break these down one by one.

Scalability
It’s a highly efficient cloud-based system that can scale to meet your needs with nearly limitless capacity. Whether you’re managing thousands or millions of certificates, PKIaaS grows with your organization, and the best part is utilizing the cloud infrastructure. The service automatically adjusts to your certificate requirements as your organization grows or fluctuates.
Speed
Let’s consider spinning up a new set of certificates for a critical business function in minutes. That’s what PKIaaS allows you to do. It deploys and expands rapidly, meaning you can respond to new security requirements.

In the past, setting up a new PKI infrastructure might have taken weeks or even months. But with PKIaaS, you are looking at minutes to scale your security in line with business operations. Whether you’re expanding into new regions, launching new products, or onboarding new teams, PKIaaS makes sure your security posture keeps up with the speed of business.
Simplicity
The complexity of managing certificates can become a major challenge. Within your organization different teams might be deploying certificates in different environments, using different tools, and at different times, which also leads to management complexities. With PKIaaS, your organization does not have to stress over the day-to-day operations or troubleshooting issues. It’s simple to deploy and adaptable to various environments, whether you’re running on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model.
Security
PKIaaS provides the highest levels of assurance, giving you dedicated Certificate Authorities (CAs), meaning your cryptographic keys are protected to the highest standards. So, whether you’re issuing certificates for IoT devices, managing user authentication, or encrypting sensitive communications, you can ensure that the keys are secure and well-protected.

How PKIaaS can be deployed in your environment?

For ease of deployment in your organization’s environment, the PKIaaS solution can be deployed on various platforms:

On-Prem PKI: Managed PKI to be deployed within your organization infrastructure, which means that PKI components such as root and issuing Certificate Authorities (CAs) are hosted within an on-premises platform.
SaaS PKI: The PKI setup for certificate lifecycle management to be configured in your organization’s cloud-based platform, enhancing security and establishing digital identities for the users.
PKIaaS: Automated certificate lifecycle management and custom Managed-PKI to be hosted and managed by Encryption Consulting’s cloud environment with the flexibility of customizing the PKI based on your domain and security requirements.

How can Encryption Consulting help?

Encryption Consulting provides specialized services to identify vulnerabilities and mitigate risks by providing PKI Services. Our strategic guidance aligns PKI solutions with organizational objectives, enhancing efficiency and minimizing costs. By partnering with Encryption Consulting, organizations can unlock the full potential of PKI solutions, realizing tangible financial benefits while maintaining strong security measures.

Encryption Consulting’s PKIaaS provides a flexible and secure PKI solution customized to your specific needs, offering benefits such as customizable options, high assurance standards, and a low-risk managed approach. PKIaaS automates key and certificate management tasks, reducing operational overhead and minimizing the risk of human error. Additionally, it enhances network visibility by requiring certificates for access. It will take care of building the PKI infrastructure to lead and manage the PKI environment (cloud/ hybrid or On-Prem) of your organization.

Encryption Consulting’s certificate lifecycle management solution- CertSecure Manager has a comprehensive suite of lifecycle management features, from discovery and inventory to issuance, deployment, renewal, revocation, and reporting. CertSecure provides an all-encompassing solution. Intelligent report generation, alerting, automation, automatic deployment onto servers, and certificate enrollment add layers of sophistication, making it a versatile and intelligent asset.

Conclusion

PKIaaS delivers a consolidated, automated approach to PKI, which is critical for Zero Trust environments. It handles everything from deployment, discovery, renewal, and management, ensuring your organization stays secure, compliant, and agile in a world where certificate management can easily become overwhelming.

So, why should organizations embrace PKIaaS? It’s about flexibility, scalability, and, most importantly, automation. This lets your teams focus on innovation while the complexity of PKI management is taken care of.

Your Guide To PKI Migration

Public key infrastructure is a solution used to secure and authenticate traffic between web browsers and web servers. It is used all over the Internet in the form of SSL/TLS. When a client communicates with a server, they get a hold of the certificate and validate it to ensure its authenticity. Then, it encrypts the data being transferred to the server. Digital certificates, which are issued by a certificate authority (CA), let you know the person or device you want to communicate with is actually who they claim to be i.e., they validate their identity.

PKI Migration is the process of moving a PKI system from one environment to a new or an existing infrastructure. This could be a transition from an outdated/legacy infrastructure to a newer one, an on-prem solution to a cloud-based PKI infrastructure, or simply a vendor migration. PKI migration is complex due to the number of stakeholders being involved in the overall process.

Thus, it becomes really important to plan out each and every phase so that all the applications and services dependent on the infrastructure function without any interruption and data is kept secure throughout the migration process.

A certification authority is trusting anchor in any PKI infrastructure. Migrating it could break the chain of trust if not done properly resulting in outages and authentication issues. Thus, while migrating it becomes important to maintain the integrity of the CA hierarchy.

High Level Overview of PKI Migration

Key Components/ Stakeholders of PKI

I. Certificate Authority (CA): It issues a digital certificate for applications/entities and acts as a trusting component in PKI infrastructure. Any certificate published by a CA is trusted by all the entities that trust the CA.

CA has four major tasks in a PKI infrastructure:

Issue digital certificates
Maintain certificate revocation lists (CRLs)
Establish and maintain trust between the entities communicating over the internet
Verify the entities to validate digital identity

II. Registration authority (RA): It is responsible for receiving certificate signing requests (CSRs) from the applications, servers or end users. It acts as an intermediatory as it verifies and approves a request before forwarding it to a certification authority. It is usually kept separate from the CA due to security and accessibility reasons. At this intermediatory stage organizations usually introduce their business logic to accept certificate requests based on origin or type of users.

III. Digital Certificate:  A certificate is a digital document that is signed by a CA to prove the authenticity of device, user or a server. It contains several attributes like digital signature, public key, client authentication, etc. It also contains subject name which is the key attribute required for identifying the owner as it holds the value of Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or IP address of the server.

IV. Hardware Security Module (HSM): A chain of trust is only as strong as its weakest link. For a PKI, trust and security relies on how it stores sensitive information. This is where HSMs come into the picture as HSM provides the highest form of key protection. It is a trusted network computer where all the cryptographic processes required by PKI are securely performed and managed. Thus, HSMs are essential for all the applications and services that are critical to a company’s infrastructure.

V. Directory Services (DS): They are central repositories that store & provide access to the information about users, applications, services, servers and other resources in a network. They play a very important role in identity management and access control within the infrastructure. Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) is one of the server roles introduced in Windows Server 2008 that provides users with customizable services for creating and managing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates, which can be used for encrypting and digitally signing electronic documents, emails, and messages.

What Does PKI Migration Involve?

The migration process would be dependent on one key aspect i.e., whether a CLM solution is in place or not. This is because in steps like inventory transfer, vendor migration, a CLM solution would make the overall process a lot easier as it would have an accurate and complete inventory i.e., updated regularly in a centralized location.

Otherwise without a CLM solution like Certsecure Manager, there will be a need to create an overall plan from contacting all the stakeholders, creating an inventory base to transferring all of this to a new infrastructure without causing any disruption or outage. This is a very long, costly and might produce complications down the line.

Now talking of the migration, the process would have four major phases:

Creating an inventory base.
Transferring certificates, CAs and key materials to the new infrastructure.
Reconfiguring all the services and applications dependent on the PKI.
Testing and monitoring the overall PKI setup and its related services.

Elements to consider in PKI Migration

When planning a PKI migration, it’s important to keep in mind several elements to ensure a smooth and secure transition. Let’s go into more detail on these aspects:

1. Current Inventory

Before going ahead with the migration process it’s very important to have a comprehensive understanding of the current PKI environment. This includes identifying all certificates & their usage in the infrastructure.

I. Root Certificates: These serve as your PKI’s fundamental trust anchors. If the root certificate expires or is revoked during process of migration, it could disrupt the trust chain, leading to outage and downtime.

II. Intermediate Certificates: These certificates sit between the Root Certificate and the End-Entity Certificates. They are used to delegate trust between your root certificates and end entity like user/ application certificates.

III. End-Entity Certificates: These are issued to end entity i.e., users, applications, software, or devices (like servers, VPNs) that rely on them for authentication and encryption. If these certificates expire or are revoked during the process of migration it would result in application/services outages.

IV. Dependent Systems and Applications: PKI often extends beyond just certificates to include numerous applications and systems that depend on them. NDES (Network Device Enrolment Service) and Intune can be critical components in a PKI migration, especially if you’re managing device certificates, mobile device management (MDM), or deploying certificates to endpoints. It becomes important to identify these dependencies because migrating could involve updating configurations across web servers, databases, applications, etc.

Thus, without a complete inventory and list of dependent devices/ services, the overall migration process is at risk as there is a high chance of missing certificates which can lead to outages. Inventory and list of these devices would also help us as a checklist in post migration testing/monitoring stage.

2. Compatibility and Standards

Another key aspect to consider while migrating is to make sure the new PKI environment is compatible with existing applications, hardware, services, etc. It comes down to ensuring the new PKI setup integrates smoothly with legacy systems and any modern hardware or software that we have currently up and running. Some legacy applications may not support new PKI standards like ECC or some key lengths which could lead to potential outages. Thus, it becomes essential to check compatibility with all the applications/dependencies.

If your migration fails to keep an account for compatibility issues, it may result in systems, application or services that fail to function or new certificates that aren’t trusted anymore by some applications.

3. Automation and Scalability

In a modern PKI infrastructure, managing hundreds & thousands of certificates manually is not considered feasible. Thus, while migrating it considered to have some automation in place that would help not only in migration but also in the certificate management in future.

Certificate Lifecycle Management Solution: A CLM solution automates the processes like certificate issuance, renewal, and revocation thus decreasing the risk of human error & increasing efficiency. These solutions provide a single pane of glass for overall certificate management making it easier to manage millions of certificates in an organization. Moreover, they can integrate with existing workflows and systems to ensure compliance and automate certificate management tasks.

Automate Certificate Renewal Workflows: This could help in avoiding outages due to expiring certificates. As, without proper automation missing an expiry alert or a renewal update is very possible. Thus, following are the key components that should be in place:

Proactive Alerts: Automated alerts and notifications can be configured to let the application owners know that the expiry date of the certificates they own is just around the corner.
Renewal Triggers: Automated renewal workflows can be triggered depending on the need of the team or certificate owners when expiration approaches.
API Integration: Many CLM solutions, provide APIs that would integrate the renewal process with your application. This ensures certificates are updated in all dependent systems without downtime.

Preparing for PKI Migration

While preparing for PKI migration there needs to be a specific guideline with clear goals on which aspects would each team focus on. Now, following is the roadmap that should be kept in mind when preparing for PKI migration. This assessment will give you a comprehensive understanding of your existing environment and help identify all the gaps or issues that could affect the migration process.

Inventory of Certificates and CAs
As discussed, perform a thorough inventory scan beforehand to list all issued certificates including Root Certificates, Intermediate Certificates, and End-Entity Certificates. Identify their locations, owners, and expiry dates.
Policy Documentation
List out all the policies governing your PKI, including certificate issuance policies, revocation policies, and certificate renewal schedules. Understanding the configuration and policy standards currently set in place will help us replicate and enforce these policies in the new PKI infrastructure.
Trust Relationships and Dependencies
Identify all the systems, applications, and services that rely on your current PKI for authentication, encryption, or secure communication.
Risk Analysis
The process of PKI migration comes with inherent risks that need to be assessed & mitigated.
Identify Potential Risks
During migration, there may be periods where services, applications that rely on certificates are temporarily down. Some compatibility issues, like legacy systems or applications might not support newer cryptographic standards or certificate formats.
Impact Assessment
Evaluate the impact of potential failures on business operations and ensure in phase rollouts to mitigate it.
Rollback Planning
This is one of the most critical aspects of PKI migration, having a rollback plan in place. If the migration process encounters severe issues, it should be possible to revert to the old PKI infrastructure quickly and safely. The rollback process should include steps for restoring old certificates, configurations, and ensuring continuity of service while the migration issues are resolved.
Backup and Redundancy
A backup plan is very important to be in place for protecting the PKI infrastructure before, after and during migration process. To avoid single points of failure, establish redundancy in your PKI infrastructure.

Understanding the PKI Migration Strategies

When creating a PKI migration plan, selecting the right strategy is critical for minimizing outages and downtime while addressing the flaws in the existing system. The correct migration strategy depends on factors like the age/version of the current PKI infrastructure, business requirements and resource availability. Below are some PKI migration strategies:

1. Lift-and-Shift

This is the one of the simplest approaches where the existing PKI is moved to a new environment with minimal changes. It involves replicating the current PKI infrastructure exactly as it is but in a new location (e.g., a new data centre, cloud platform, or updated server). Thus, it requires a well-defined and detailed set of policies and guidelines that used to be in place in the previous infrastructure.

When to Use:

This strategy works well when the current PKI is relatively modern, up to date, stable, and fit-for-purpose but needs to be relocated to a new infrastructure (moving the PKI infrastructure to the cloud). This strategy won’t work when migrating legacy infrastructure to a latest one.

Benefits:

Minimal disruption to ongoing operations.
Fastest method with the least complications.

2. Rehosting Strategy

Rehosting goes beyond a simple lift-and-shift by relocating the PKI to a new environment and implementing changes to improve its infrastructure. This could involve moving to a cloud-based solution, upgrading server hardware, or enhancing security measures.

When to Use:

This strategy comes in handy when the current PKI still functions well, but it requires certain improvements, such as scalability, security, or performance. Organizations looking to take advantage of modern infrastructure like cloud-based security while keeping their existing inventory can use this approach.

Benefits:

Increases the scalability, security, or performance in overall infrastructure
Minimal changes to the PKI policies and structure, reducing complexity.

3. Infrastructure Upgrade Strategy

This method contains replacing the current PKI infrastructure (legacy in most cases) or solution with a new, modern system while retaining the existing cryptographic objects, such as keys and certificates. It’s used when the technology is outdated but the core inventory still valid and usable.

When to Use:

Best for organizations needing new features or technology but not wanting to disrupt their current inventory. Primarily employed when switching to a more contemporary and compliant platform from an antiquated or legacy infrastructure.

Advantages:

A more involved process than a straightforward transfer because compatibility testing between legacy and contemporary infrastructure is needed.

4. System Redesign Strategy

With this approach, the PKI will be completely redesigned, starting with the generation of new cryptographic keys and ending with the transition to a new CA (Certification Authority) hierarchy. Every endpoint receives a fresh trust anchor along with all new keys and certificates.

When to Use:

Ideal for companies whose PKI infrastructure is corrupted, old, or no longer compliant with modern standards. When the current PKI is out of compliance with the forthcoming requirements, a complete redesign is frequently considered.

Advantages:

Total autonomy to restructure the PKI in accordance with industry standards and best practices.
Taking into account: The most intricate, costly, and time-consuming method. It needs to be implemented and planned out well.

Common Pitfalls in PKI Migration

When migrating a PKI infrastructure, there are many challenges & potential pitfalls that, if not correctly addressed, can result in serious problems like compatibility problems, downtime, and security breaches. The following are some typical complexities to be aware of:

1. Complexity of PKI Migration

PKI migrations are inherently complex because they involve sensitive security infrastructure and affect all the services and systems that rely on them. A failure to recognize the full scope of the migration can lead to serious outages.

Challenges:

Lack of Comprehensive Planning: Many organizations fail to create a detailed plan for the migration, which includes not only moving certificates but also considering key management systems, applications, and network devices that depend on the PKI.
Overlooking Dependencies: Overlooked dependencies, such as integration with directory services, VPNs, internal applications, NDES, etc can lead to unforeseen downtime or functionality problems.

2. Data Loss and Unplanned Downtime

Migrating PKI without proper precautions can lead to data loss or downtime, especially in cases where teams don’t back up their current infrastructure before starting the migration.

Challenges:

Backup Failures: If something goes wrong during the migration process, data loss may occur from improperly backing up and creating redundancies of certificates, keys, and logs.
Downtime: If the migration procedure is not adequately tested or planned, unexpected downtime may happen. Operations at businesses may be disrupted as a result of this.
Compatibility Issues: PKI relies on integration with various applications, servers, and hardware security modules (HSMs). Compatibility issues arise when the new PKI environment is not fully compatible with existing systems or applications.

3. Security Vulnerabilities During and After Migration

Misconfigurations, forgotten configurations, or transient vulnerabilities can all result in the creation of security gaps during PKI migration, which is a frequent source of trouble.

Challenges:

Misconfigurations: If something goes wrong during the migration process, data loss may occur due to improper backups of certificates, keys, and logs.
Expired Certificates: Migrating a PKI without renewing expired certificates or managing key rollovers can weaken the security posture.

4. Data Integrity and Chain of Trust

Maintaining the integrity of your data and preserving the chain of trust is critical when migrating PKI infrastructure. Any break in the trust chain can invalidate certificates, leaving your infrastructure vulnerability.

Challenges:

Corrupted Data: Improper handling of data namely certificates, keys, or CRLs could lead to data corruption leading to broken services and outages.
Break in Chain of Trust: During migration, any disruption in chain of trust could invalidate the digital certificates and lead to vulnerability in infrastructure.

Best Practices for PKI Migration

1. Auditing & Planning: Conduct a full audit of your existing PKI infrastructure, list out all the dependencies, and develop a detailed migration plan.

2. Phase by Phase Migration: Perform the migration in phases to reduce risk and allow time to address issues.

3. Testing: Use test environments to simulate the migration and identify potential problems.

4. Backup and Recovery: Regularly back up certificates, keys, and configurations, and have a recovery plan in place in case of failure in migration.

How Can Encryption Consulting Help?

As PKI migrations are complex, involving multiple phases of planning, certificate issuance & revocation. At Encryption Consulting, we specialize in designing and migrating PKI infrastructures that align perfectly with your organization’s unique security needs.

Our full range of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services help you in migrating PKI can seem daunting with the increase in the number of cyber threats and complications associated with it. But you can rest assured because our experienced staff will help you migrate and monitor your PKI. With Encryption Consulting’s PKIaaS, you can focus on your core business while we handle the complexities of PKI management.

Encryption Consulting ‘s Certificate Lifecycle management solution called CertSecure Manager ensures that every aspect of the migration is handled from inventory migration to automation workflows.

End-to-End Automation: CertSecure automates the issuance, renewal, and revocation of certificates, ensuring that no certificate expires during the migration. This helps prevent service outages or security gaps caused by expired certificates.
Bulk Certificate Management: Migrating PKI often involves issuance of new certificates in large quantities. CertSecure allows bulk certificate issuance, increasing efficiency while reducing human errors during the migration process.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Built in RBAC feature allows organizations to create access control within the infrastructure and have segregation in place with respect to inventory and CAs.

Conclusion

PKI migration is a complex yet essential process for organizations looking to migrate their PKI infrastructure, modernize their certificate management, or address vulnerabilities in their current PKI environment. Whether you’re utilizing a straightforward “lift-and-shift”, or a more complex “complete shift” strategy, detailed audit, planning, implementation, and expert support are critical for a successful migration.

A successful PKI migration not only addresses current infrastructure vulnerabilities but also resolves the existing compliance issues, thus, aligning with latest standards, and maintaining compliance. Thus, a strategic approach to PKI migration will enhance an organization’s overall security posture and ensure a smooth transition to a more secure and modern infrastructure.

PKI Deployment – 5 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Introduction

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the backbone of most organizations’ encryption implementations. PKI provides a well-defined, secure system for authenticating and encrypting critical information. PKI uses digital certificates to protect sensitive data, secure end-to-end communications, and provide a unique digital identity for the users, devices, and applications across your business.

With continuous technological advancements, PKI has gained capabilities to cover a broader range of use cases, including securing devices, cloud platforms, containers, and IoT ecosystems. A recent report by DigiCert indicates that 91% of global organizations now rely on PKI to secure emerging digital infrastructures. When used properly, PKI can handle a wide range of responsibilities for your organization, everything from authentication to encryption to ensuring file and email integrity.

However, too many organizations often fall prey to common PKI deployment mistakes, making their PKI infrastructure more difficult to manage and less secure than they realize. PKI is complex, but when deployed correctly, it can protect critical data, secure communications, and authenticate users, devices, and applications.

Unfortunately, even the most well-intentioned PKI deployments can fall short due to common mistakes. In fact, a 2023 report by Ponemon Institute highlighted that 67% of organizations experienced at least one certificate related outage in the last two years. A recent study indicate that 75% of organizations struggle with managing PKI, often due to deployment mistakes that expose their infrastructure to unnecessary risk.

Let’s examine the top five most common PKI deployment mistakes and how to avoid them.

Common PKI deployment mistakes and challenges

Keeping an organization’s ecosystem secure is essential for consumer trust, regulatory compliance, and corporate risk reduction. Using a PKI can present excellent value for money in terms of outlay versus protection and can be one of the most strategic weapons in a company’s arsenal against malicious actors seeking to steal information or compromise IoT devices. However, PKI deployment mistakes mean that many organizations end up spending more on a system that fails to adequately secure sensitive resources.

Let us break down the top five most common mistakes and challenges of PKI deployment:

1. Not allocating skilled internal resources 

The most prevalent mistake made when deploying PKI is underestimating the resources needed. Running an in-house PKI needs a load of effort, time, and money. The shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals is a significant barrier. A study from Keyfactor revealed that only 38% of organizations have sufficient staff dedicated to their PKI deployment. About 45% of unplanned PKI failures result from staff lacking the necessary training to manage certificate lifecycles and incident reporting. Such a scarcity of expertise often leaves PKI in the hands of inexperienced personnel, additionally increasing the risk of outages and security breaches.

It is required to have a dedicated team with skilled resources to run the show. The PKI team should have sufficient resources and skilled owners who can lead and respond effectively to an outage or security incident.

2. Lack of planning and tracking

Structured and well considered planning is one of the best practices of PKI deployment. A proper planning will not only help an organization keep track of their certificates, but it will also decrease the security risks to the PKI. Once the system has been in place for a while, and if it has not been built in a structured manner, your organization can easily lose track of what certificates have been issued. Many organizations do not pay attention or do not know about the number of certificates they have, their expiry dates, where to find them etc.

The consequences of such mismanagement range from failed audits to certificate and key misuse that can ultimately compromise an organization’s systems. A 2022 Venafi study found that 83% of companies had suffered certificate-related outages due to poor certificate visibility and planning, while 26% of those organizations had severe business impacts.

One high-profile example of this is what happened when attackers pushed a malicious version of ASUS Live Update using ASUS security certificates to install backdoors on over a million PCs.

3. Security of the Root CA

It is particularly important that the security of the Root CA is well-considered. In PKI deployments all trust comes from the Certificate Authority (CA). The CA issues the Root Certificate which ensures the validity of the cryptographic keys used to verify the authentic identities.

The root CA is the foundation of trust for every certificate issued across the organization’s environment. If you cannot trust your root CA, you cannot trust your PKI. As per security guidelines specifying who can obtain the certificate and when the certificate will be revoked is crucial for establishing and maintaining trust in CAs and avoiding PKI deployment mistakes. A regular audit of relevant CA is required to ensure that the certificate practice statements (CPS) are implemented correctly, and to avoid any risk to their network.

As Ted Shorter, the CTO of Certified Security Solutions puts it:

“PKI enjoys a well-defined structure for policy and practices definition, in the form of Certificate Policy (CP) and Certification Practices Statements (CPS). These are excellent frameworks for defining the requirements governing a PKI, and how an implementation would meet those requirements. Creating these documents can be a daunting task. However, it’s important to note that simply copying someone else’s set of CP/CPS documents verbatim will not suffice; these tools only have value if they truly represent your organization’s PKI requirements and operational processes.”

4. Bad Certificate Lifecycle Management

Another PKI deployment mistake is lack of forward planning for the management of the entire certificate lifecycle. Poor handling of expired certificates may cause outages and significate expenses. Automating renewal of certificates may help in this case. If the organization is making a manual effort, then monitoring the expiry of certificates is a must.

Figuring out what is best for your organization and its PKI is a calculation you’ll need to work through, by coming up with an entire plan, an issuance process that covers not just the initial roll out but the entire certificate lifecycle. It is also a good idea to figure out how you’re going to handle revocations, key archival, key recovery, and all other contingencies.

5. Not storing certificates and keys Securely 

Hackers can use a variety of techniques to analyze and detect keys while they are in use or transit. Ensuring the keys are stored securely under FIPS 140-2 level 3 systems is a must.

Bruce Schneier, a universally respected American cryptographer, and security researcher, writes about key security with so much severity that you cannot help but feel a little guilty at everything you are not doing:

“One of the biggest risks in any CA-based system is with your own private signing key. How do you protect it? You almost certainly don’t own a secure computing system with physical access controls, TEMPEST shielding, “air wall” network security, and other protections; you store your private key on a conventional computer.

There, it’s subject to attack by viruses and other malicious programs. Even if your private key is safe on your computer, is your computer in a locked room, with video surveillance, so that you know no one but you ever use it? If it’s protected by a password, how hard is it to guess that password? If your key is stored on a smartcard, how attack-resistant is the card? [Most are very weak.] If it is stored in a truly attack-resistant device, can an infected driving computer get the trustworthy device to sign something you didn’t intend to sign?”

If you are saving key-strings in a spreadsheet, on a thumb drive, on a normal hard drive, or even somewhere online that is remotely accessible, you are making a mistake. Honestly, you probably should be using an HSM.

How to Avoid Your PKI Problems with Industry Best Practices

1. Proper Planning & Documentation

We emphasize that a detailed, well thought out plan for PKI deployment hugely minimizes risks and maximizes the long-term success of the organization’s security posture. Research shows that 80% of IT leaders believe that inadequate planning is the primary cause of PKI implementation challenges. In our experience, PKI requires tailoring to the specific security needs, scale, and complexity of each organization.

Gartner says, “Security leaders that successfully reposition X.509 certificate management to a compelling business story, such as digital business and trust enablement, will increase program success by 60%, up from less than 10% today.”

We strongly recommend starting with the development of clear policies and guidelines for certificate issuance and lifecycle management, which can help prevent security gaps. There should always be proper documentation for certificate lifecycle workflows, covering issuance, renewal, revocation, and replacement of certificates. Organizations should clearly understand where each certificate is deployed, track expiry dates, and have processes in place to handle renewals and revocations.

2. Hire Skilled Resources

PKI is a complex infrastructure that demands specialized skills and attention. According to the Ponemon Institute, 73% of organizations have experienced unplanned downtime or outages due to mismanagement of digital certificates. We always advise our clients to invest in building a team of experts, including cryptographers, system administrators, and security engineers.

If in-house expertise isn’t feasible, we often recommend outsourcing PKI to a trusted managed PKI service provider. Outsourcing offers scalable, secure, and reliable solutions that eliminate the risk of mismanagement. So, while organizations focus on core business functions, a PKI service provider like us at Encryption Consulting ensures their PKI is always up and running.

3. Conduct Regular Audits

Regular audits are essential to ensure ongoing compliance with security policies and industry regulations. Such an audit often uncovers hidden vulnerabilities, outdated certificate practices, or misconfigurations that may go unnoticed but could pose serious risks to security. Here, we focus on key areas, including:

Certificate Practice Statements (CPS): Ensuring proper implementation and compliance with established practices.
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL): Verifying timely revocation and removal of expired certificates.
Policy Adherence: Ensuring the organization follows its established certificate policies.

The DigiNotar breach is a clear example of how failing to regularly audit CA can have catastrophic consequences. We use cases like this to remind our clients of the importance of continual monitoring and auditing of their PKI systems.

4. Implement Automated Certificate Management Solutions

In our consulting work, we frequently encounter organizations struggling with manual certificate management. A study reveals 55% of organizations lack the automation needed for effective certificate lifecycle management.

Automation is key to avoiding human error and maintaining security resilience. We encourage our clients the use of automated certificate management platforms like CertSecure Manager, which simplify issuance, monitoring, and renewal processes. With automation, you can mitigate the risk of certificates expiring unexpectedly, reducing business disruptions.

5. Encrypt and Protect Sensitive Data with HSMs

For any PKI, securing cryptographic keys is non-negotiable. Improper key storage poses a serious security threat. We advise our clients to deploy Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) for the generation, storage, and management of sensitive keys.

Our recommendations are to use FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant HSMs to protect root keys and other sensitive cryptographic assets. NIST has found that deploying HSMs can reduce key exposure risks by 90%, offering peace of mind that your cryptographic keys are safe from theft or tampering.

We’ve helped several organizations, implement HSM solutions to safeguard their internal CAs. These organizations have experienced a significant reduction in compromised key incidents as a result.

Conclusion

A successful PKI deployment is non-negotiable for securing your digital infrastructure. With the right expertise and strategy, your organization can achieve uncompromised trust, security, and resilience, standing firm against modern day cyber threats. Encryption Consulting’s PKI Services and PKI-as-a-service can help you manage your PKI and secure the digital network of your organization.

We can design, implement, manage, and migrate your PKI systems according to your specific needs. Managing PKI can seem daunting with the increase in the number of cyber threats. But you can rest assured because our experienced staff will help you build and monitor your PKI. We can assess your PKI based on our custom framework, providing you with best practices for PKI and HSM deployments. 

How do you efficiently automate certificates?

Everyone is aware of the rate at which digital identities are expanding; it is not hard to visualize the numbers we would be dealing with 5-10 years down the line. Given the enormous scale of identities every organization is dealing with currently and the numbers foreseeable in the future, you could easily imagine the bottlenecks for your IT, security, and infrastructure teams in manually managing the certificates representing those identities.

Also, you might be aware that Google has recently announced a requirement for rotating certificates every 90 days, which implies that manually managing certificate renewals would be challenging and prone to delays.

Additionally, the risks posed by the rise of quantum computing to existing algorithms would require organizations to be crypto-agile to keep their identity ecosystem safe and secure, requiring quick turnaround cycles for their certificate management operations.

Looking at all these examples, managing certificates manually is not feasible. Doing so would increase the risk of outages, security threats, and compliance issues for organizations.

Why certificate automation is important?

To elaborate on why certificate automation is important, we will take a look at the following  key benefits that automation could bring to your organization:

Automation provides you with the capability to discover your certificates across your heterogeneous certificate landscape, providing a centralized view.
Automation ensures efficient and faster handling of your bulk certificate operations, eliminating any human errors and delays, thus ensuring timely certificate deployments and business continuity
Automation helps your organization monitor your certificates for expiration and any compromises or breaches and take proactive action for managing their renewals or revocations respectively, thus eliminating outages and security risks associated with such events
Finally, automation helps you in achieving cost optimizations related to avoidance of penalties for non-compliance, fewer incidents outages, and reduction in manual labor

What to automate?

Before your organization embarks on a journey to automate various aspects of your certificate management workflows and processes, it is important to consider “what to automate.” Automating the below key areas could be a good starting point :

Creation, deployment, renewal, and revocation of certificates

One of the major aspects of a certificate automation system is ensuring that certificates are issued, deployed, renewed, and revoked timely to meet an organization’s need for authenticating machines, users, and applications and securing communication among them.

Automation can ensure effective monitoring of –

Expiring certificates and proactive renewal of certificates without the risk of outages and security threats posed by expired certificates.
Monitoring for any certificate compromises or breaches and ensuring timely revocation of such certificates.

Certificate discovery

Certificate discovery should be an integral part of any certificate automation system as it helps your organization understand its certificate usage landscape and helps identify information such as location, certificate lifetimes, creator, user, algorithm, key size, etc. This understanding is important, for example, to identify potential vulnerabilities related to using weak algorithms or non-optimal key sizes and take appropriate remedial action, such as revocation of the certificate, in such scenarios.

Consolidating your organization’s heterogenous certificate landscape

Once your certificates are discovered, they typically become part of a certificate inventory that provides a centralized view of your certificates. This would help your organization consolidate the management of certificates from various private and public Certification Authorities as well as manage the other aspects of your PKI. Consolidation would also help your organization enforce standard policies and processes across your heterogeneous certificate landscape, simplifying management, monitoring, control, and reducing costs.

How could Encryption Consulting help your organization with certificate automation?

Encryption Consulting’s Certificate Management Solution “CertSecure Manager” is a comprehensive solution for all your digital certificate management requirements, including the following –

Helps consolidate your certificates and provides a unified view across the various certificate authorities registered with CertSecure, including the PKI health information such as certificate utilization, certificate authority expiration, and certificate revocation list expiration.
Provides a centralized view for your expiring certificates, including the ones expiring within 0-7 days, 7-30 days, and so on. This information will help you renew your expired certificates in a timely manner, thus ensuring business continuity.
Gives you a consolidated view of your certificate inventory and allows various filtering options to perform certificate operations such as renewal or revocation easily.
Provides capability for certificate enrolment across the different Certificate authorities registered with CertSecure, as well as managing policies such as configuring certificate templates for various Certificate authorities.

Conclusion

Certificate automation is important to mitigate any risks of outages, security breaches, or compliance issues for your organization by streamlining key functions of your certificate management such as issuance, deployment, renewal and revocation.

Everything You Need To Know About CipherTrust Manager

Thales’ CipherTrust Manager stands as one of the most reliable options available for organizations around the world for data security. This solution offers you a full-scale data security answer to help manage encryption keys, policies, and data access that fits perfectly into your IT framework. CipherTrust Manager protects information stored in cloud, hybrid, and local storage setups.

It works even better for businesses that can integrate the solution into their already existing Thales CipherTrust Data Security platform for more seamless integration. It can discover data, classify, and secure it with the help of several security technologies. This setup allows you to have central control of all your keys and gives you the benefit of more efficient policy management.

The key features of CipherTrust Manager include

Centralized Key Management

It functions as a great resource that you can leverage to generate backup or restore, rotate, deactivate, or delete the key lifecycle activity processes.
It helps organizations like yours to integrate with Microsoft SQL TDE, Oracle TDE, and any other KMIP-compatible product and key that you might be using.
Handling data key and ownership access helps you to comply with several data security relations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and more.
It scales with you to meet your growing requirements with multiple encryption forms.

Granular Access Control

It gives you suitable ABAC (attribute-based access control) features.
It helps developers establish exact controls over their encryption keys.
Only those who have been verified are granted access to Key Management Operations that enhance overall security.
It logs every action and function on the platform, which facilitates your monitoring.

Broad Flexibility

It supports encryption technologies at the application, database, file, and storage levels.
It also works with open standards like PKCS #11, JCE, .NET, and KMIP for seamless integration.
It supports encryption and tokenization in on-premises, cloud computing and hybrid environments. Third-party cloud services such as Google Platform Services, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are compatible with CipherTrust.
It also includes SDKs and APIs for direct integration that can fulfill specific requirements for your organization.

High Performance

The ability to grow in clusters is beneficial for organizations that have operating units spread across multiple geographic areas.
It allows keys, rules, and configuration information to be replicated in real time with other appliances.
It reduces business disruption and information security risk while enhancing encryption’s high availability and speed.

Robust Security

It includes detailed ABAC controls, secure key distribution over TLS, and key storage on FIPS 140-2 compliant HSMs.
The platform offers data discovery and classification functionality for your organization that adds an extra layer of security.

Tackling Common Issues in Deploying CipherTrust Manager

Over the years, we have worked with clients from different geographical areas worldwide, had different company sizes, and had even more diverse requirements from integrating CipherTrust Manager. However, some common issues stayed consistent for organizations regardless of the differences in their attributes. Here are some common issues and our recommendations that can help you to effectively mitigate these problems.

1. Network Connectivity Issues

What we have analyzed while working with corporations is that when network settings aren’t correctly configured, it leads to difficulties in connecting CipherTrust Manager with external services. During the deployment phase, improper handling or expired certificates can cause SSL/TLS-related errors or issues with secure communications.

We advise rechecking the network configuration and inspecting the logs to troubleshoot connectivity issues. CipherTrust logs connection requests received, client requests, etc. You should also double-check your firewall rules to allow necessary traffic for management and data protection purposes. Verify that all certificates are valid and correctly installed. Also, ensure the certificate chain is correctly configured for CipherTrust Manager and external systems to avoid SSL/TLS-related issues.

2. Synchronization with Time Services

If CipherTrust Manager’s clock is not properly synchronized with a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server, it can result in authentication and encryption failures. Proper time synchronization on the CipherTrust Manager appliance is crucial for the correct functioning of features, such as configuring HSM as the root of trust, clustering multiple CipherTrust Manager, adding extra connections, integrating with external clouds, etc.

We strongly advise configuring at least one Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server for the CipherTrust Manager immediately after deployment to ensure accurate time synchronization. In general, NTP Server configuration ensures that communications between a CipherTrust Manager and any external entity will work. Please navigate to this document to see how you can add or delete NTP servers.

3. Starting services after deployment

Physical appliances and private cloud instances include an initial SSH key for the System Admin “ksadmin” to use during launch. After launching, this key must be replaced so the CipherTrust Manager can start all its services and become fully functional. Replacing the SSH key is a one-time operation during deployment. You cannot replace the key a second time.

If you have launched a Virtual CipherTrust Manager from a public cloud such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Oracle Cloud, the SSH key you provided at launch does not need to be replaced. To replace SSH keys, create an SSH key pair outside CipherTrust Manager. Your public key must be an RSA key in the OpenSSH format. RSA 4096, with RSA 2048 as a minimum size for adequate security, is recommended.

The corresponding private key can be OpenSSH, PKCS1, or PKCS8 format. Browse through the CipherTrust Manager’s IP address, and if prompted paste your SSH public key in the box provided and then select Add. A login screen will appear after this. Follow this document for further information.

4. Meeting Multiple Regulatory Compliance

Organizations have different compliance requirements, such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and others, that they need to adhere to depending on their region and industry. And it becomes complex for employees who are new to the solution to find a way to leverage the solution to meet these compliance requirements.

Before starting the deployment, we advise you to verify your organization’s compliance needs. After that, set up CipherTrust Manager to manage encryption keys by implementing a secure policy framework that complies with your legal requirements. Additionally, you can also use thorough auditing and reporting tools, which can provide all the data you want on your key management operations. Each one of these actions is important and should be added to your compliance documentation.

5. Ensuring compatibility with Existing Solutions

Compatibility issues can occur if CipherTrust Manager doesn’t configure well with the current IT and security setup.

We recommend using CipherTrust Manager’s APIs and SDKs to integrate into your environment. It is also important to review the integration and configuration steps carefully for each application, such as HSM. You can also get help from an external support team as they can help to ensure the solution operates efficiently with your current systems, reducing disruption, and enhancing your overall security setup. They can help to address any compatibility issues your company might face during or after you set it up.

6. Achieving Scalability

Organizations often struggle to increase their resources to meet the growing security needs as they scale due to the growing use of keys across the environment. Setup CipherTrust to manage encryption types and keys that will scale alongside your organization. CipherTrust employs a REST interface and a microservice-based architecture, allowing easy deployment and scalability within your environment.

We advise you to properly understand the architecture of CipherTrust and analyze how nodes can be added to make a cluster with high availability. Scaling the solution also means that your encryption keys and policies extend to expanded areas, incorporating optimization techniques and handling large-scale encryption. This should be carefully assessed, as doing so incorrectly can cause a lack of performance and mismanagement of encryption keys.

Advanced Features and Capabilities

From our experience, we have seen most leading organizations choose CipherTrust Manager due to its advanced feature options that add to the overall security and efficiency. To make sure you can maximize the return on investment on CipherTrust Manager, it’s really important to have a really good understanding of the solution. So, here we list all the core functionalities that make CipherTrust Manager one of the most trusted solutions for enterprises.

1. Data Discovery and Classification

The Automated Discovery tools help to efficiently identify structured as well as unstructured sensitive data on-premises and in the cloud.
It has built-in templates for various regulations like GDPR, CCPA which can help you quickly set up comprehensive scans using the tool to identify all sensitive data across your data stores, wherever they reside, and immediately rectify any compliance gaps.

2. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) and Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE)

CipherTrust supports BYOK, which gives you the freedom to use your own encryption keys and manage its data security.
CipherTrust’s BYOE option also allows you to store data in the cloud using your preferred encryption methods and tools.

3. Key Rotation and Expiry

The Automated Key Rotation feature helps you to change encryption keys at fixed times which adds additional security measures.
With the Key Expiry Management feature, CipherTrust can watch over and carry out the main key backup and update regularly to keep your data secure.

4. CipherTrust Intelligent Data Protection

It has adjustable policies to protect information on-premise and in the cloud; also, it has pre-built templates that help to filter and classify insecure unstructured information quickly.
Helps you locate security flaws and employ the most suitable method of data protection as per risk and vulnerability profiles.

5. CipherTrust Transparent Encryption

It provides the data access audit log, privileged user access, and centralized key management for data-at-rest encryption.
This protects data in all of its resides, including big data and container environments, various clouds, and on-premises storage.

The Need for External Support

It might be easier for organizations with prior knowledge of CipherTrust to implement and manage the whole system. To receive the maximum result from the investments made to purchase a CipherTrust Manager, there are certain characteristics and additional connections that should be set up. In addition, there’s the potential of individuals making common errors that provide an entry point for attacks and security flaws, raising major security concerns.

With adequate expertise, organizations may take advantage of extra customized integrations to match their specific needs and have an easy installation process. Having an additional support team also prevents any incidents of prolonged downtime that can have a snowball effect on the other aspects of your security infrastructure, adding to the security risks and operational inefficiency, which impacts the overall security environment.

Complex Integration

CipherTrust Manager offers various functionalities like Data Discovery and classification, which identifies structured and unstructured sensitive data on-premises and in the cloud. The solution provides built-in templates that enable rapid identification of regulated data.
CipherTrust offers Transparent Encryption, which delivers high-performance encryption and least-privileged access controls for files, directories, and volume. This protects data wherever it resides, on-premises, across multiple clouds, and within big data and container environments.
CipherTrust also offers a Database Protection feature, which provides high-performance, column-level database encryption with granular access control.

External Support can help make this integration a smooth process. CipherTrust offers several functionalities aimed at protecting your data. It can be complex to understand these features, such as data classification, transparent encryption, database protection, and many others, and integrate them well with your existing resources.

Enterprises often face performance issues when implementation is done poorly or inefficiently. They have adequate experience deploying CipherTrust Manager and integrating its functionalities with different applications. They can adequately leverage the above-mentioned features in your environment to ensure unparalleled data protection. They can understand and analyze your current setup and plan to integrate the solution for what you need.

Specialized Expertise

CipherTrust Manager offers solid cryptographic key management features. To handle keys well and use the product’s advanced features, you need to know how to leverage these features and understand the security and regulatory rules you must follow.
Many companies can lack the expertise required to set up and run tools like CipherTrust Manager well. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might set it up wrong, making your system less safe.
After initial deployment, you might need to add more integrations to make CipherTrust Manager work best for what your company needs. It would be best to have experts to tweak and improve the tool as needed.

External support teams are aware of the best practices to be followed for secure key management and necessary security measures and navigate seamlessly with safety. They have the specific knowledge and tech skills to set up this tool and can help you improve the whole process. They can understand what is needed from CipherTrust Manager to align with your business requirements.

Ongoing Maintenance and Support

CipherTrust Manager works with open standard cryptography interfaces, like JCE, PKCS#11, and .NET. To keep these interfaces working well, you need to understand these interfaces and configure them properly in your environment.
After the installation, you must set policies for key rotation, data backup, and restoration. You’ll need to understand the basics of key management and best practices to implement these policies.
As security needs change, getting help from experts can be useful. They can ensure CipherTrust Manager meets your company’s security needs without hiccups.

The external support team can provide expert knowledge about key rotation, data backup, and restoration policies. They can guide you in conducting data recovery tests. They stay on top of security and feature updates. They can support you in running and managing the solution well.

Compliance and Audit Assistance

CipherTrust Manager helps you follow GDPR, PCI DSS, and HIPAA rules. It does this by creating templates within their tools which can be used to exactly find the gap. It can be complex to understand these predefined templates and use them for our own benefit.
Complying with several regulations is challenging. They’re complex and need exact records and steps. It would be best to have strong key management, regular checks, and updates to keep up with changing rules.

External experts can configure CipherTrust Manager to meet compliance standards. They offer specialized knowledge to work around predefined templates offered by the solution and help ensure all regulatory needs are met, prepare thorough records, and lend a hand with getting ready for audits. Their knowledge can make the audit process smoother and ensure that all needed answers and proof are given to auditors. They can evaluate how safeguarding is done and can produce a report on areas for improvement.

Deployment Considerations and Best Practices

Deploying a complex solution like CipherTrust Manager can be daunting. To lower common security risks and running problems, we think that companies should consider these points.

Comprehensive Planning

Deploying CipherTrust Manager needs careful planning to match a company’s encryption and data protection goals. This includes assessing whether a hybrid, on-premises, or cloud deployment model is most appropriate. It also involves picking the right hardware and software parts. Each service and product in CipherTrust Manager must have a clear definition to set it up right and follow the rules. Keeping an eye on things is key to keeping up with changing laws and new threats and ensuring the setup stays strong and safe.

Phased Rollout

Rolling out CipherTrust Manager works best in stages instead of all at once. Companies can begin with a test run or limited launch in specific departments or programs. This approach allows the team to gain hands-on experience, optimize processes, and build internal expertise. It also helps to spot and fix problems, making future stages go. Throughout the process, it’s a good idea to modify default settings to match your company’s security rules and standards.

Robust Access Controls

CipherTrust Manager uses Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) to approve actions. ABAC lets you create access policies based on the features of the objects users want to access. Management should set up these policies to ensure permissions are right and to lower the chance of wrong key use or access. Also, it’s key to modify settings and policies that fit your organization’s needs.

Comprehensive Training

Key management requires specialized skills and knowledge, which external experts can support well. When deploying CipherTrust Manager, engaging external support to ensure you have a properly trained team to use and manage the tool can be beneficial. This approach helps your organization fully leverage the solution’s capabilities and maintain security and compliance standards. Additionally, developing detailed documentation for ongoing management tasks and deployment procedures enhances the effectiveness and consistency of the solution.

Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance

CipherTrust Manager needs constant monitoring and maintenance, including disaster recovery testing, backups, and key rotation. Many organizations opt for external support for clear and effective maintenance roles to keep the system running efficiently and reliably. It’s also crucial to regularly check and fix potential risks, boosting system security even more.

Continuous Improvement

Review and upgrade CipherTrust Manager regularly to meet your organization’s changing security and compliance needs. Leveraging new features and enhancements is crucial for maintaining optimal performance. Getting cybersecurity experts involved can help avoid setup problems and help you stick to best practices. External support services can also assist with ongoing management, maintenance, and operations, contributing to continuous improvement and system reliability.

How can Encryption Consulting help with your
deployment?

Encryption Consulting’s experts can monitor CipherTrust Manager’s installation and configuration to match your organization’s specific needs, maximizing productivity.
Our team resolves issues and performs health checks to prevent future incidents. This includes regular updates, upgrades, and troubleshooting to ensure your system operates at its best.
To optimize your key management processes, we assist in integrating CipherTrust Manager with all other systems and applications within your organization.
We systematically manage and identify potential issues in your CipherTrust Manager environment to fix them before they occur. Our proactive maintenance approach helps avoid downtime incidents that could increase security risks.
As a part of our additional offering, we can also provide comprehensive training sessions for your team to improve their skills in using this solution. This way, in addition to following best practices, your team will understand the product’s capabilities.
We have experience working with several features of CipherTrust Manager and can assist you from start to finish of the deployment with routine monitoring of the solution’s health. We will assist you in CipherTrust’s integration, provide specialized expertise as needed, and offer 24*7 support.

Conclusion

CipherTrust Manager is a great data security solution that lets you control encryption keys, security policies, and data access from a central place. This solution is ideal for organizations that need strong data protection in different settings. However, the wide range of functionalities and integrations can quickly turn from a benefit to a risk factor due to complexities that require specialized expertise to manage it all.

Taking on external support provides you with an additional support team of dedicated experts who have years of experience in deploying and managing CipherTrust Manager. These experts help you fine tune CipherTrust to meet all of your requirements, which in turn gives you the benefit of getting the most return on your investment.

Enterprise Guide To HSM-as-a-Service

Today, most organizations utilize Hardware Security Modules, or HSMs, within their security infrastructure. Whether it be for compliance standards, general security, or any other reason, most companies will have one or several HSMs for securing encryption keys. Configuring an HSM can be a complicated task, but the truly difficult part of using HSMs is the management of those devices.

Managing an HSM includes ensuring your HSM meets the policies of your organization, that it is compliant with any standards that your industry may abide by, and that only those who should be able to access and create encryption keys can create and access those keys.

Understanding HSMaaS

HSM-as-a-Service or HSMaaS, is different than just having an HSM in your organization itself. With an HSM in your organization, you normally oversee every aspect of it. Monitoring, configuration, and updating the HSM would all fall into your company’s hands. Though you would have complete control over your keys, managing everything gets complicated. Configuration of an HSM is a long process that can lead to many different issues along the way.

During configuration, you will likely need multiple team members as there are several different roles within the HSM, and it is recommended that you have each role be a different team member. Additionally, when dealing with quorums of those roles, you will need even more team members. When monitoring and upgrading HSMs, your organization will need to continuously monitor the HSM, taking up time and employee manpower, and you will need to stay up to date on the latest releases of software and firmware of the HSM.

When utilizing an HSMaaS, all the steps of the process are made infinitely easier. Configuration of the HSM is done by the organization offering the HSMaaS. The HSMaaS provider will take care of any daily monitoring of the HSM as well, clearing up manpower from your organization. Usually, if there are specific policies or standards your HSM needs to adhere to, they will also ensure your partition and the HSM meet those standards and policies.

Additionally, any firmware and software updates will be taken care of by the HSMaaS provider. One important point to note about HSMaaS is that the HSMs tend to be shared by other organizations working with the HSMaaS provider. What this means is that your keys will not be the only keys on the HSM. Luckily, HSMaaS providers have already found a secure method of doing this.

Although your keys are on the same HSM as other companies, you cannot access their keys, and they cannot access yours. They are split into different sections of the HSM that are inaccessible to anyone other than those allowed access to it. In this way, you have access and control over your keys, and no one outside of your organization can access them.

Benefits of HSMaaS for an Enterprise

There are several different benefits associated with HSMaaS. We have touched on a few of these benefits, but let’s dig a little deeper into why HSMaaS provides so many benefits to organizations:

1. Manpower Usage

When dealing with an HSM at your data center or on-premises, you will oversee every aspect of the HSM. That includes monitoring, access to the HSM and keys within the HSM, upgrading the firmware and software, and adding any new users, partitions, etc. With HSMaaS, you do not need to invest any manpower into the HSM. This will clear up your team members so they can focus on other tasks without needing to spend time managing the HSMs. You can instead trust your HSMaaS provider to take care of this for you.

2. Cost and Time Management

The cost associated with HSMs tends to be the price tag for most organizations, but another cost you should consider is the time cost. With an HSMaaS provider, all the time that a team or team member would spend on monitoring and maintaining an HSM will now be focused on other things, like client work. The actual cost of an HSM should also be considered when deciding to use HSMaaS.

HSMs can carry a high cost, as not only does an organization need to pay for the HSM itself, but they will also need to pay for the data center space and, if they are setting up the HSM in the most secure way possible, they should also purchase a backup HSM. With HSMaaS, the cost of the HSM is reduced to the service price. Usually, this will be significantly cheaper than buying and maintaining one yourself, as you will just be paying for a section of space on an already-in-place HSM.

3. Security

Security is a key component of utilizing an HSM. By allowing an HSMaaS provider to take control of your HSM, you never need to worry that it is secure. HSMs, in general, are tamper-evident and tamper-proof, but since the HSMaaS provider is protecting customer data, they will take even more steps to ensure the security of the HSM.

Control over who can access the HSM is strictly controlled so that only members of your organization who should have access to the HSM have that access. Additionally, the HSM will always be stored in a data center requiring IDs of the HSMaaS provider to ensure no one can physically get to the HSM.

4. Scalability and Versatility

When you run out of space in a partition, for example, and you need to expand your HSM use, this is even simpler with an HSMaaS provider. If your company was running the HSM, it could take a decent amount of time to create a new partition and get it set up with a client. In the HSMaaS case, it is as simple as reaching out to the provider, who will then take care of provisioning what is necessary on the HSM.

5. Compliance

Finally, there is the idea of compliance. With your own HSM, you oversee ensuring that your HSM meets all your compliance needs. This can take up a lot of time and manpower from your teams. In the case of HSMaaS, they are trained professionals who will work with you to ensure your HSM meets all your compliance needs.

Key Components of HSMaaS

The key components of HSMaaS are very straightforward. The HSMaaS provider gives you the ability to trust that your private keys are always secure, taking the stress out of managing and protecting your HSM yourself. Also, HSMaaS frees up your employees to focus on other tasks, taking away the need to continually monitor the HSM and ensure that it is staying compliant and up to date. Finally, with HSMaaS, you do not need to take the time to create new partitions, users, etc., as the HSMaaS provider takes care of this for you, along with ensuring that your keys are secure throughout their lifetime.

Implementing HSMaaS in Your Organization

Implementing an HSMaaS in your organization is an extremely simple matter. Originally, with your own HSM, you would need to take care of several steps yourself. First, you would need to purchase the HSM and initialize it. The configuration of an HSM can take a day or more, depending on your familiarity with HSMs. As most organizations are using an HSM for the first time, it can take three days to deal with configuration issues and networking problems. After initializing the HSM, you must set up the policies to meet the compliance requirements of your industry.

This can include setting up user roles and setting policies on the HSM. After this, you must create your first test keys to ensure that the HSM is functioning properly. If any part of this process is not working, it is up to you to contact the manufacturer and get a replacement HSM. As part of the key creation process, you must also set up your client machine as a client of the HSM. Finally, you must integrate your HSM with all the systems that need it. This can include your PKI, your code-signing services, and any other tools that may create key pairs or certificates.

In the case of HSMaaS, it is a much simpler process. Instead of needing all the beginning steps, you can skip right to making your machine a client of the HSM and integrating it with your systems. The HSMaaS provider will already have the HSM configured; they may just need to set up the policies to meet specific compliance standards.

Setting yourself up as a client is a very simple process, and at Encryption Consulting, we can help you with every step of your integration journey. If you utilize our HSMaaS offering or wish to set up your own HSM and need assistance, we are here to help. Our team of experts has worked with most HSM integrations, and we can make it a simple and painless process.

Case Studies and Success Stories

At Encryption Consulting, we have provided HSMs as a Service to a number of different clients. These clients have all utilized different deployment options and HSM types and have been in different industries. We had a healthcare organization come to us for assistance with their PKI and the HSM they should use. This company was moving its PKI to the cloud, so our expertise was needed to begin that process.

We set up their entire PKI and provided them with multiple guides on how to maintain the PKI, monitor the PKI, and complete day-to-day operations. Along with the PKI came their desire to integrate an HSM within their PKI. At first, they wanted to buy their own, but they found that the cost and manpower benefits of utilizing an HSMaaS made more sense.

Their biggest stress was that the keys in our HSM would be accessible to other users of our HSMaaS. Still, we explained the architecture of the HSM type in use, and they understood that only those people from their organization who should be able to access the keys would be able to access them.

Another success story we have had is an integration with our code-signing product, CodeSign Secure. We had a client who was utilizing our on-premises HSMaaS within their PKI, and they wanted to start using a code-signing product at their organization. After reviewing a number of different code-signing products, the organization found that CodeSign Secure had the most appealing features and cost. They wanted to set up their CodeSign Secure client and server on the cloud while they utilized an on-premises HSMaaS.

The integration went extremely smoothly, and they did not need to worry about any extra steps like configuring a new HSM or managing the different components of the HSM. They could seamlessly integrate their HSMaaS with CodeSign Secure while still utilizing it to its full capacity with their PKI. As you can see, using an HSMaaS offers many different benefits to organizations, allowing these companies to rest assured that their data is secure and properly monitored at all times without the need to utilize their team members in this process.

Best Practices for Managing an HSMaaS

While the majority of the work of managing an HSM is taken out by using an HSMaaS, it is still important to take certain steps to ensure the HSMaaS is running and being managed to your organization’s standards. Some of the best practices your organization should follow can be seen below:

Ensure the HSMaaS Provider is keeping the HSM up to your organization’s policies:

When selecting an HSMaaS Provider, you should ensure that they meet all your organization’s policies in regards to monitoring and protecting data. Making sure the HSM is in FIPS mode, if necessary, and that the data is accessible to only your organization are two key questions you should ask the HSMaaS provider. Additionally, ensure that the HSMaaS provider is monitoring the HSM with enough regularity so that your company’s policies are met.

Alert the HSMaaS Provider to any policy changes or standard changes:

If your organization goes through any large or small policy changes that relate to the HSM, it is very important to update your HSMaaS provider on this fact. This will keep the HSM up to date on organizational policies and ensure that it still functions with the proper security in place.

Ensure you are getting updates on the status of the HSM regularly:

Another best practice is to ensure the HSMaaS provider is giving regular updates on changes, upgrades, and the status of the HSM. This can be a weekly or monthly meeting, and it is even better if they have a webpage continually showing the status and updates of the HSM.

Future Trends in HSMaaS

We at Encryption Consulting have noticed a large trend in HSMs in general and HSMaaS providers for the future. Many HSMaaS providers offer different deployment options for users, meaning you can have an on-premises or cloud-based HSM. This trend is because so many organizations are moving toward the cloud for most of their services. Another future trend you will find a lot more often in all cybersecurity is the idea of Post Quantum Cryptography or PQC. PQC is the idea of preparing systems and algorithms for the threat that quantum computers will pose in the near future.

Most of this PQC-readiness involves changing out old algorithms, like RSA, with algorithms that are considered quantum-safe. This is because classical computers would take several decades to decrypt a single password encrypted with RSA, whereas, with a quantum computer, this would take seconds. As you can see, preparing your systems for the future is extremely vital, which is why we highly recommend HSMaaS.

Becoming PQC-ready is a long and arduous process that can take years. By using HSMaaS and ensuring they are in the process of becoming PQC ready, you can save a lot of time and effort in getting your HSM PQC ready.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We have talked about a number of different things in regard to HSMs as a Service, but one more important point is questions we, as HSMaaS providers and consultants, are asked by customers. One of the first and most important questions we are asked is how do I determine if an HSMaaS is a good fit for our organization? Since HSMs as a Service can be used in both the Cloud and on-premises, an HSMaaS should work for any organization.

It cuts down on the cost of money and manpower, and it provides everything an organization would need from an HSM. The only time an HSMaaS would not be able to be used by a company is if they have specific policies or standards that restrict the use of an HSMaaS provider. In this case, the HSM would have to be managed by your organization. Another common question we are asked is whether HSMs as a Service are as secure as an organization-owned and controlled HSM.

Yes, an HSMaaS functions in exactly the same way that an organization’s own HSM does and tends to be a bit more secure. The reason for this is that the HSMaaS provider’s sole focus is on the HSM, so all updates are done on time, any issues with the HSM are handled by trained professionals, and they know the best practices involved with securely running and monitoring an HSM.

One final frequently asked question we are posed is: what is the best way to get started with using an HSMaaS? Our best suggestion is to speak to multiple HSMaaS providers and compare their prices and offerings. Many will charge more but offer less, but at Encryption Consulting, we are competitively priced and provide you with everything you need regarding your HSMaaS.

How Encryption Consulting Can Help

At Encryption Consulting, we offer several different services to customers, including our HSM as a Service offering. With our HSMaaS, you can utilize any type of deployment option you deem necessary. Utilizing an on-premises or cloud-based HSM is very simple with our HSMaaS model. With on-premises HSMs, you get the high-performance and low latency necessary for your applications; you have complete and isolated control of your keys, and if your organization requires strict data protection in specific countries, then the on-premises HSM is perfect.

Small and medium organizations may utilize cloud-based HSMs for multi-cloud platforms, highly variable workloads, and integration with cloud-based services. Additionally, we offer the option for the HSM to be dedicated or managed. Our dedicated HSMs are ideal for organizations that need a new HSM infrastructure and require designing and deploying.

As for our managed HSM option, this is ideal for organizations with the HSM infrastructure but who require assistance with management. Encryption Consulting will handle HSM provisioning, configuration, patching, and maintenance. We also offer design, implementation, and management of HSM systems if you require these services.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a number of different points to consider when looking at an HSMaaS. Comparing service providers, understanding how an HSMaaS works, and knowing the best practices to employ when using an HSMaaS are all vital steps in selecting an HSMaaS for your organization. Additionally, understanding what using an HSMaaS vs an HSM is like is very important as well.

Our enterprise guide to HSMs as a Service should have prepared you with any questions you need to ask an HSMaaS provider and explained everything you need to understand an HSMaaS better. If you have any further questions, please contact us for more information on HSMaaS and how we can help you in your HSMaaS journey.