Secure Your Data in Azure with External Key Management and BYOK

Data security can be complex, but it's essential in today's business world, especially when using cloud services. One effective approach is adopting external key management and the Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) model. In this article, I will explain how Cryptomathic’s CrystalKey 360 addresses this need.

Understanding External Key Management and BYOK Microsoft Azure

External Key Management involves managing encryption keys outside the cloud, and BYOK in turn means bringing external keys into the cloud with an automated integration or a manual import. And why would you do that when you already have internal key vaults within the cloud’s own platform? Let us take a look at the benefits in the following.

Advantages of BYOK

Data Sovereignty and Regulatory Compliance:

For businesses operating in multiple regions, data sovereignty means that an organization ensures that their data management practices are legally compliant and that they can maintain control over their data, especially when using international cloud services.

With a BYOK service for your clouds, businesses can generate keys using their own hardware security modules (HSMs), Enclave Security Modules (ESMs) or Software Security Modules (SSMs) and import them into the cloud key vault. This helps meet local data residency requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

Risk Mitigation:

Vendor Lock-In: By using an external key management solution, you reduce dependency on a single cloud providers key management system, making it easier to switch providers or adopt a multi-cloud strategy without losing control over your encryption keys. An important step towards cloud portability.

Data Protection: In the event of a data breach or unauthorized access within the cloud provider's infrastructure, having keys managed externally reduces the risk of your encrypted data being compromised. You also have the option of using your keys to protect the data during transit between clouds.

Operational Benefits:

Centralized Key Management: External solutions provide a centralized interface for managing keys across various environments including operations done on HSMs. The centralized approach also enables a single source for logging and user permission management which again simplifies operations and improves efficiency.

Audit and Reporting: Enhanced logging and reporting capabilities help with auditing and monitoring key usage providing better visibility into your security posture.

Conclusion

By implementing external key management, you can achieve a higher level of security, maintain compliance with legal requirements, and retain greater control over your data, ultimately helping to protect your organization's sensitive information in the cloud.

Get in touch for more detailed insights on BYOK with your prefered cloud service provider and  how we can help your organization optimize your cloud security strategy with Cryptomathic’s CrystalKey 360

CLICK HERE for more insights on cryptomathic's crystalkey 360