RSA Enhances Key Manager Suite Encryption Key Management System

PRESS RELEASE

BEDFORD, Mass., May 6/PRNewswire/ --RSA, The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC) today announced enhancements to RSA(R) Key Manager Suite (RKM), its enterprise encryption key management system designed to manage encryption keys at the application, database, and storage layer.

With new integrations and server-side management features, RKM 2.5 can help lower the total cost of ownership associated with encryption by giving administrators strong control over the vaulting and management of keys from one central location. RSA Professional Services now also offers a new Tokenization Service that is engineered to extend RKM by enabling the use of tokens to mask and protect sensitive data.

"Customers are continuing to deploy encryption in more places across their infrastructure to address different data security risks," said Tom Corn, vice president, Product Marketing, RSA, The Security Division of EMC. "As a result, they need enterprise key management systems like RKM to help reduce the management complexity and cost associated with point solutions. A centralized enterprise key management system allows them to adopt an encryption solution that works for them today and can expand to other encryption solutions in the future, without having to change their approach to key management."

"Encryption is the ultimate control technology for meeting security standards and regulatory guidelines for information protection.

However, encryption has been done in a stove piped manner. Encryption is most effective when part of a long-term data protection strategy," said Charles Kolodgy, research director, Secure Products, IDC. "Proper key management is the key to building a comprehensive data protection infrastructure out of the chaotic world of single purpose encryption applications. Products such as the RSA Key Manager provide an enforcement mechanism that will scale across and interoperate with all the different encryption technologies in the enterprise to make their encryption strategies more effective."

Adding to Industry-Leading Interoperability with New Integration Partners

RSA Key Manager is designed to simplify the ongoing operational headache associated with encryption by providing enterprise key management across multiple encryption points in the enterprise including tape/virtual tape, disk, databases, and applications. The latest offering includes direct integrations with two new technology partners, Brocade and Sun. These integrations are built with a direct communication between the key management server and the devices performing encryption, eliminating the need for unnecessary software layers:

DataCenterFabric-based Encryption Solutions

Data center storage switches and blades, offered through EMC Connectrix (R) technology and leveraging RSA(R) Key Manager technology, re-direct traffic from servers and applications to encryption services and to back-end storage. These solutions offer a scalable and innovative approach to fabric-wide encryption for data-at-rest within the data center.

-- Brocade(R) 32-port standalone encryption switch -- Brocade 16-port encryption blade for DCX family

Native Tape Encryption

-- Sun StorageTek LTO-4 Tape Drives

These integrations build on RKM's industry-leading interoperability, which includes existing integrations with EMC PowerPath(R) path management software, EMC Connectrix SAN switches, Cisco MDS switches, the Advanced Security option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition, and Quantum and IBM LTO-4 tape drives.

New Features Help Improve Security and Reduce the Time and Cost Associated With Encryption

Encryption environments can often include many different application clients and devices performing cryptographic functions. Managing the permissions (i.e. the ability to encrypt, decrypt, generate keys, etc.) of these clients is often complex and time consuming, and can vastly increase the operational overhead associated with managing the encryption process. RKM 2.5 simplifies this as it is designed to allow granular control of permissions for each device or application in the system from a central location. This reduces overhead associated with multiple key management silos and gives greater control to administrators.

Key managers are also responsible for maintaining audit activities to ensure compliance. Compliance rules require that companies maintain a log when keys are generated, rotated, or expired, and administrators often bare the burden of ensuring these functions are performed. RKM