Let us consider a scenario in which an organization, a general contractor utilizing at least one subcontractor, implements a production chain security strategy powered by encryption, but NEGLECTS the addition of a key management system. You’re the CISO, responsible for the cybersecurity strategy that ensures your organization’s information assets and technologies are adequately protected.

Your team implemented standards-based encryption across the board and provided a common software platform to your supply chain partners, allowing for data to be transferred securely between your organizations…or so you thought.

Suddenly, your organization gets word from a subcontractor that they’re experiencing unusual network activity. The cybersecurity strategy you spent months creating is clear; cut off your partner’s network, lock down your data, and as CISO, stay up all night hoping the bad actor wasn’t able to permeate your network’s exterior defenses. In the interim, your IT department heads begin the grievous task of pulling reports from various locations and mulling them over to better understand any potential impact.

In the early morning hours, you find out that there was indeed a breach, courtesy of your subcontractor’s less-than-robust “secure network.” A bad actor was able to breach your defenses through your subcontractor’s weaker network, grabbed your data, and basically left unnoticed until your subcontractor alerted you to a “possible problem.” You’ve already spent a good portion of the night calculating the estimated costs of just such a breach, and you’re now faced with explaining what happened to your CEO.

Now, rewind, and imagine that you are the CISO who went beyond just “checking the box” for data encryption

The CISO who went beyond just “checking the box” for data encryption when planning their security strategy slept like a baby while his IT department went home in time for dinner with their families. The subcontractor did experience a breach, but your organization was left unscathed. Thanks to the encryption key management system you integrated with your legacy system earlier in the year, the company’s data remained secure. With the automated, short-life periodic key rotations, and the system’s robust identity capabilities, applications, and storage services, the necessary insight and controls needed to thwart this sort of next generation attack were in place and all data remained secure.

Addressing the overall security of not only your enterprise, but also those in your supply or distribution chains, in a protection-centric approach, is the most cost-effective and simple solution you can add to your current security strategy to protect your data. Learn how one encryption key management solution like Fornetix® VaultCore™ can extend the reach and power of your encryption and better protect your data from attack.

For a deeper dive into understanding encryption key management and how CISOs, CTOs, and others tasked with implementing enterprise security strategy and securing data across multiple environments can utilize a key management system to better protect their data, click here to read The CISO’s Guide to Understanding Encryption Key Management.