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This was solve by banks a long time ago with hardware security modules (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_security_module https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki
by slv77 8y ago
This was solve by banks a long time ago with hardware security modules (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_security_module https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_security_module). HSMs make it impossible to extract encryption keys from the device and turn a digital security problem into a physical security problem which banks knew how to manage. Are your encryption keys secure? Yes they are right there.
Amazon and Azure offer these in the cloud.
- closeparen 8y agoThe application has whatever credentials it needs to make decryption requests to the HSM. Wouldn't an attacker who owns it simply find them?
- slv77 8y agoTypically the HSM will be part of a tokenization service that is located in a separate security zone also called a data bunker or data vault. The customer facing application will pass in the sensitive data and in its place a token will be returned. When the calling application needs the data it will pass in the token and the data is returned. An attacker that compromised the customer facing application only has access to tokens and would be forced to access sensitive data via the data bunker. That application is heavily monitored and would hopefully be quickly noticed. The HSM adds an additional layer of protection against loss of sensitive data via backup tapes or some insider attacks.