LAS VEGAS – Encrypting data is one of the best ways of ensuring attackers can’t run off or damage the corporate jewels. However, it usually comes with a performance hit and is difficult to use in the cloud .
Thtat’s why most IT and security managers recommend it be used only for the most sensitive data.
At its Discover 2014 conference here on Tuesday Hewlett-Packard announced three solutions it believes allows enterprises to expand their use of encryption to better protect all types of data.
HP doesn’t say the solutions are a compete defense to the increasing number of attacks and breaches organizations are facing today. But it does say they should at least lower the risk.
The solutions come from the company’s Atalla division, which for the past 30 years has focused on protecting transaction data of the customer of banks and financial institutions. (HP gained Atalla in its 2002 purchase of Compaq Computer.)
The three solution mark the first time Atalla has turned its resouces to protecting corporate data.
They are:
–HP Secure Encryption, a key management solution that uses a controller card added to select HP ProLiant Servers for hardware-based encryption acceleration, linked to an HP Enterprise Secure Key Manager, which is a 1U server.
HP says the combination can protect up to 2 million keys and 25,000 servers.
Encryption keys are the most important part of an encryption process, Albert Biketi, general manager of the Atalla division, told reporters. So where they keys are stored is important – they shouldn’t be stored in the same place as the data. But enterprise key management is complex and a lot of orgs don’t do it well. The solution resolves this;
— Atalla Cloud Encryption, for organizations with data in the cloud. A software-as-a-service assembled by HP with several partners, it essentially creates two keys; one held by the organization, the other in the cloud with data but in a way that it can’t be exposed if a hacker takes a snapshot.
Both keys are needed to de-crypt data. It is sold with one or three-year licences. Pricing wasn’t immediately available;
— Atalla Information Protection & Control (IPC), software that tags and encrypts data when it is created. The tag the follows the data if it is imported and exported through various applications.
IPC comes in a number of versions, including ones for content management, Exchange Server, and Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS).
Art Gilliand, HP’s senior vice-president of enterprise security, told reporters that with attackers using increasingly sophisticated techniques such as buying information on vulnerabilities in organizations, it is more important than ever that encryption be used as a defence.