FIPS 140-2 to FIPS 140-3 Level 4. A Financial Institution's Cryptographic Security Transformed

Catalogued every in-scope cryptographic module, reviewed encryption (data-at-rest, data-in-transit, key and certificate management) and CP/CPS documents across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid PKI environments. Stakeholder workshops assessed the security framework, producing a per-use-case roadmap with short-term and longer-term remediation.

Updated security policies covered cryptographic controls, key lifecycle management, and data classification, with per-module security requirements, operational procedures, and compliance checkpoints. An encrypted logging system and lifecycle assurance policies now govern modules through development, validation, deployment, and operation.

We redesigned key management around five elements: approved RNG-based generation, TLS 1.3 distribution (AES, ChaCha20), mandatory zeroization, formal key revocation, and defined key lifecycle roles and responsibilities. We proposed centralizing on HSM-backed storage with periodic rotation and identity-based access control.

Identity-based MFA was deployed across every system touching a cryptographic module: knowledge (password or PIN), possession (OTP or hardware token), and biometric factors. We advised on selecting and deploying MFA solutions like security tokens and OTPs, with authentication tokens tied to user sessions so every access is auditable.