Black Box ET0100A Secure Communications Between Devices, Secure Key Storage within the Etkms

EncrypTight Overview

Secure Communications Between Devices

Each node in the distributed key system, the EncrypTight management station, the ETKMSs, and the PEPs, communicate policy and status information with other nodes. Given the distributed nature of networks, much of this communication occurs across public networks.

EncrypTight uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt management traffic between EncrypTight components. This protocol allows secure communication between the devices in the system while providing information about the secure stream to EncrypTight. You can enhance that security by authenticating the management communications between EncrypTight components using certificates. To learn more about certificates and strict authentication, see “Using Enhanced Security Features” on page 261.

Secure Key Storage within the ETKMS

Key generation and key storage on the ETKMS are critical to maintaining security in EncrypTight. The ETKMS uses the following mechanisms to protect the keys:

●Generates keys using known secure algorithms

●Encrypts keys that are distributed and stored locally

●Limits access to keys to authorized administrators

●Prevents external probing to access or modify keys

●Optionally generates and stores keys in a hardware security module

24 EncrypTight User Guide