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Analysis: Enterprise Key Management: Page 8 of 16

We want EKM products that can speak to encryption devices and software from different vendors and manage all our keys. Key management would be a tough enough nut to crack with one über suite, never mind integrating dozens of products of different types.

To be effective, an EKM suite must at a minimum address this wish list:

» SECURE KEY CREATION. This is actually harder than it sounds and should be accomplished using purpose-built, FIPS 140-2 Level 3 encryption hardware to defend against so-called side-channel attacks against cryptographic implementations (see more on FIPS 140-2);

» KEY REVOCATION, including re-encrypting old data as necessary, and key aging;

» AUTOMATIC INTEGRATION with identity management systems, where new account equals new key, deleted account equals revoked key;