Five Strategies for Better Cryptographic Key Management

IT security leaders must prioritize cryptographic key management and cleanup, starting with analyzing the company’s risk profile and moving on to knowing where keys are stored and who has access to them. They must create a risk management plan and make compliance a goal.

The skyrocketing increase in cybersecurity attacks on a global scale has brought to light the urgent need to adhere to best practices for security and encryption in general. It’s one thing to adopt an inside-out mindset; quite another to put it into action.

Here are five essential guidelines that can help organizations get started on the path to better cryptographic key management.

Use High-Quality Keys

Businesses require good keys and an inventory scan. The most crucial action companies can take is to ensure that they employ high-quality keys.

Knowing where the keys came from and how they were created is necessary to developing good keys. Do businesses know how they were made—with a pocket calculator, laptop, or special tool made just for the task? Is there enough entropy? Keys should never leave the secure confines of a Hardware Security Module (HSM), whether they are being generated, used, or stored.

Also Read: How a Modern Cybersecurity Strategy Can Reduce Complexity and Costs  

Most companies probably already use certificates and keys; do they know where they are stored? Who can access them and why? Just how are they handled? Businesses must first prioritize cleaning up and centralizing life cycle management for those certificates and keys, and after doing an inventory of what already exists.

Evaluate Risk Profile 

IT security leaders must evaluate the risk profile of their environment. They can develop the most brilliant and comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, but in the end, its effectiveness depends on how well-received and adhered to it is throughout the organization.

Because of this, it’s critical to create a risk management strategy with input from stakeholders from across the company. To maintain the integrity of the process, leaders must involve compliance and risk teams early on. The business units and IT teams who present use cases and can later explain to their peers why the security actions are required are both needed for the security protocols and processes to be useful.

Compliance is an Outcome, Not the Goal

Compliance must be an outcome, not the ultimate goal. Even though regulatory compliance is crucial, employing it as the only factor in developing a strategy carries a certain amount of risk. Organizations miss the bigger, more crucial point when systems are developed only to check off regulatory boxes on a checklist: to design and construct for greater security.

Instead, they must ensure that their efforts truly fulfill their security and business objectives moving forward by using security standards as a guideline for the necessary requirements. It’s critical not to let compliance divert attention from the main goal.

Balancing Security and User Experience

Leaders must balance security and user experience. How does security impact usability? Has a system been developed that is so secure that most users would find it useless? Finding a balance between security and user experience is crucial, as is ensuring that security procedures don’t prevent individuals from carrying out their jobs. For instance, multifactor authentication can be a great approach to increase access security, but if it’s not handled properly, it can lead to process breakdowns and a sharp decline in productivity.

Key management is a serious matter that needs to be handled accordingly. To build sound key management practices as the foundation of everything the company does, someone inside the organization must become highly proficient at understanding the solutions and technology.

Also Read: Three Crucial Ways to Integrate Compliance and Security

However, knowing when to seek expert assistance is crucial, such as when a company has too many keys to keep track of. Cryptography experts thoroughly research best practices and recommendations to ensure that key management solutions and cryptographic tools adhere to the necessary standards. Leaders will then have the framework to assess the possibilities and find the experts they need to adequately secure their assets in the event that the company needs additional support for the key management process.

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