In today's digital era, banks are increasingly leveraging cloud and multi-cloud environments to drive operational efficiency. However, the security and confidentiality of sensitive data must remain a top priority. This is where a centralized key management system (CKMS) comes into play.
Hardware security modules (HSMs) are physical devices that provide cryptographic functions such as encryption/decryption and digital signing. They are used in many industries where strong security is necessary, including finance, banking, government, military and healthcare. In banking in particular, HSMs are used to validate all payment card transactions.
HSMs are typically installed in a secure rack in private bank datacenters around the globe. For evident security reasons, accessing these datacenters is strictly controlled and in nature, accessing these HSMs inside the datacenter is inconvenient even for the security teams responsible for this infrastructure.
There is a need to remotely administer these HSMs once provisioned and to manage and to load the cryptographic keys required for payment processing. This is what we call “remote key loading”.
Encryption has become the most essential part of securing data online. The biggest headache to the Cybersecurity industry is a data breach. The last few years have seen an increase in hacking and exposure of confidential data to individuals or cyber criminals. Lack of data protection or data encryption has been one of the major reasons behind such security breaches.
Recently, a healthcare industry data breach occurred because the company stored Social Security Numbers of 80 million customers without encrypting them. The subsequent paragraphs suggest a set of best practices that can help to improve the level of cyber security in eGovernment transactions.
With the ever increasing number of online services and electronic transactions, business owners are becoming ever more dependent on the use cryptography to prevent sensitive information from cyber attackers.
Java’s recent Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) vulnerability underscores the fact that organizations cannot rely solely on outside vendors for effective cybersecurity. The financial services industry must evolve its encryption and key management strategies in line with its changing infrastructure models, advocating an inside-out approach that has proven itself over time.
User interface design and usability are the deciding factors in attaining a good user experience for most IT deployments, including key management systems (KMS). The most significant constraint to the use of a KMS is the difficulty that some systems present to the non-specialist users.
User interfaces (UIs) that adapt to the expertise of the user can guide a new and less-trained user, while permitting an expert to use efficient shortcuts and to bypass step-by-step guidance.
This article presents high level recommendations on efficient user interface design for a key management system.
This article talks about how different factors and controls can affect the strength and effectiveness of a cryptographic system's security. It gives particular consideration to the requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI).
The IBM mainframe series (“z-series”) has become a backbone for security, privacy and resilience in a large share of payment and banking related applications across the globe. This article explains why a cryptographic key management system (KMS) that supports the hybrid-cloud is a prerequisite to effective and compliant security management of these mainframes.
The protection and secure management of cryptographic keys is crucial for ensuring that cryptography is used in the most effective way to keep data secure. Picking the wrong key management system (KMS) can thwart all the efforts that have been made in using cryptography to protect information.
