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Cloud Key Management Service Options, Education Center

Cloud Key Management Services: Advantages and Disadvantages

by Puneet
Posted on Last updated on
ServicesAdvantagesDisadvantages
Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE)
  • The Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE) concept is the desired trust model for organizations that require full control over access to their data regardless of where it is stored or processed.
  • Regulated industries, such as financial services and healthcare, require keys to be segregated from the cloud Data Warehouse compute and storage infrastructure. BYOE enables organizations to comply with this requirement with encryption applied to the most sensitive columns, and dynamic masking or filtering access to other sensitive columns – achieving the optimal balance between data protection, compliance, analytics and usability of the data.
  • Without exposing encryption keys or sensitive data to the cloud, BYOE enhances the security of data within all cloud services such as Database as a Service (DBaaS) environments, as data is always encrypted before being sent to the cloud.
  • There is an increased latency problem as any data element has to go through repeated cycles of encryption and decryption for utilization in cloud environments, thereby inducing latency related issues.
  • As there are limited interfaces available, there is a requirement to build Custom API’s for integration with multiple cloud service providers, which might not be feasible for a small/medium sized organizations.
  • As the organizations adopt a move to cloud approach, this approach puts increasing pressure on the on-premises infrastructure with respect to scaling, performance, etc.
Bring Your Own Key-Cloud HSM
  • No Key exposure outside the HSM.
  • FIPS advanced level (FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and above) complaint hardware-based devices meeting all regulatory requirements.
  • Can perform all core functions of an on-premises HSM: key generation, key storage, key rotation, and APIs to orchestrate encryption in the cloud.
  • Designed for security.
  • Dedicated hardware and software for security functions.
  • Need specialized, in-house resources to manage key and crypto lifecycle activities.
  • HSM-based approaches are more cost intensive due to the use of a dedicated hardware appliance.
  • Performance overheads.
Bring Your Own Key-Cloud KMS
  • No specialized skilled resources are required.
  • Enables existing products that need keys to use cryptography.
  • Provides a centralized point to manage keys across heterogeneous products.
  • Native integration with other services such as system administration, databases, storage and application development tools offered by the cloud provider.
  • Key exposure outside HSM.
  • FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and above devices not available.
Software
Key
Manage-ment
  • With this approach, service accounts, generic administrative accounts which may be assumed by one or more users, can access these secrets, but no one else.
  • Not compliant with regulatory requirements which specify FIPS-certified hardware.
Secret Management
  • Run the organizations own key management application in the cloud.
  • Lower cost than HSMs and full control of key services, rather than delegating them to your cloud provider.
  • Can perform all core functions of an HSM: key generation, key storage, key rotation, and APIs to orchestrate encryption in the cloud.
  • N/A

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Encryption Consulting is a customer focused cybersecurity firm that provides a multitude of services in all aspects of encryption for our clients.

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About the Author

President at Encryption Consulting LLC focusing on providing consulting to customers in the Applied Cryptography space.

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Cloud Key Management, Encryption

AWS VS Azure KMS

by Puneet
Posted on Last updated on

Deciding which cloud crypto vendor is best for you? Choosing between Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure is heavily debated by users. The transition toward uploading data on the public cloud is becoming the standard for organizations. The two main factors for protecting data are to protect the data from unauthorized access and to meet compliance regulations. Cloud Security must be the main priority of everyone in the organization. The use of encryption depends on the protection of the keys. Key protection and management are offered by Amazon Web Services Key Management Services (AWS KMS) and Microsoft Azure Key Vault. In today’s blog, Encryption Consulting will summarize Amazon Web Services (AWS) Key Management System (KMS) and Microsoft Azure Key Vault.

Amazon Web Services Key Management Services (AWS KMS):

AWS KMS is a managed service that is used to create and manage encryption keys. The two types of encryption keys in AWS KMS are Customer Master Keys (CMKs) and Data keys. CMKs can be used to encrypt and decrypt up to 4-kilobytes of data. Data Keys are generated, encrypted and decrypted by CMKs. The CMKs can never leave the AWS KMS. The CMKs could be customer managed or AWS managed. Data keys are used to encrypt data. AWS KMS does not store, manage or track data keys. AWS KMS cannot use data key to encrypt data for you. You have to use and manage data keys. AWS KMS uses FIPS 140-2 validated hardware security modules (HSM) and supported FIPS 140-2 validated endpoints ensuring confidentiality and integrity of your keys.

Azure Key Vault:

Microsoft Azure Key Vault is used to store secrets like tokens, passwords, certificates, and API keys. Azure Key Vault can also be used as a key management solution. Key Vault can encrypt keys and secrets in hardware security modules (HSMS). Key Vault supports RSA and Elliptic Curve keys only. Microsoft will not see your keys, but processes the keys in FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated HSMs.

ControlAWS KMSAzure Key Vault
Symmetric KeyAES-GCM-256X
Asymmetric KeyXRSA-OAEP and RSA-PKCS #1v1.5
Bring your own key (BYOK)CMK wrapped with RSA 2048PKCS#12 or nCipher HSM
Unwrap KeyRSA-OAEP and RSA-PKCS#1v1.5RSA-OAEP and RSA-PKCS#1v1.5
SignXRSA-PSS and RSA-PKCS#1v1.5
Key Length -Symmetric KeyAES 256X
Key Length-Asymmetric KeyXRSA 2048 – 4096
Key operations per second1000 – 5500 depending on the region1000 for HSM 2000 for Software-basedCrypto

At Encryption Consulting, we are here to take care of all your encryption needs with respect to cloud key management.

Contact us at info@encryptionconsulting.com

Tags:

Free Downloads

Datasheet of Encryption Consulting Services

Encryption Consulting is a customer focused cybersecurity firm that provides a multitude of services in all aspects of encryption for our clients.

Download
Encryption Services

About the Author

President at Encryption Consulting LLC focusing on providing consulting to customers in the Applied Cryptography space.

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