Announcing IBM Key Protect Release in Frankfurt EU Region on IBM Public Cloud

Data leakage associated with data stored in the cloud is one of the top security concerns of cloud computing users. Having the ability to protect data with cryptographic encryption key management is critical to the overall security of a cloud ecosystem. Company policies, industry best practices, and government regulations are increasingly requiring data-at-rest encryption supported by encryption key management to be included as fundamental components of overall data storage, data management, and data governance. Data encryption management is enabled using a key management service (KMS) which provisions and stores cryptographic keys using FIPS 140-2 certified (Federal Information Processing Standard) hardware security module devices. By providing the mandatory control of user access requests to encryption keys, key management services also help clients secure their sensitive data from unauthorized access or inadvertent employee release while meeting compliance auditing standards.

IBM addresses the need for secure encryption key management with the release a new security service into the Frankfurt EU Region called IBM Key Protect.

IBM Key Protect is a multi-tenant, PaaS encryption key management service that offers a simple and economical key management solution for managing keys that are used to encrypt data-at-rest in the IBM Cloud. IBM Key Protect manages the entire life-cycle of keys from key creation through application use, key archival, and key destruction, while also enforcing separation of duties between data management and key management.

IBM Key Protect supports BYOK (Bring-Your-Own-Key – customer managed encryption) which allows users to import into IBM Key Protect master root-of-trust encryption keys created within an internal, on-premise key management service (KMS). Using a process called envelope encryption, BYOK gives organizations the ability to have more control over the security of their data stored in the IBM Cloud.

IBM Key Protect:
• Allows any customer encryption enabled data-as-a-service or internal applications to use REST APIs for integrating encryption capabilities with IBM Key Protect, eliminating the need to spend the time or effort building proprietary (and often insecure) solutions to protect encryption keys.
• Meets all compliance requirements of GDPR.
• Supports BYOK (Bring-Your-Own-Key) customer managed encryption.
• Provides the ability to delete keys without any residual copies remaining, thereby rendering any data encrypted under those keys cryptographically-erased. Once the encryption keys are deleted, you can be assured your data is no longer retrievable, regardless of the application or cloud that stored it.
• Supports built in security based upon FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified hardware security modules (HSM) located within secure IBM Softlayer data centers.
• Gives cloud system administrators the ability to easily manage their encryption keys while creating roll-based employee access to data via a simple graphical user interface.
• Offers no charge pricing for users requiring 20 or less keys.

Start using IBM Key Protect today!

Available in the Public IBM Cloud EU Region catalog under the Platform – Security section.