What is Cloud-based PKI?

The Need for Cloud-based PKI

So, Cloud-based PKI refers to Public Key Infrastructure services hosted and managed in the cloud, which are then provisioned to organizations, providing them a scalable and flexible solution for their PKI needs by taking away all the PKI related operations, reducing associated costs, and enabling internal teams to focus on other primary tasks, and therefore Cloud-based PKI becomes necessary to ensure low costs and better overall productivity.

As we know already, on-premises PKI offers organizations complete control over their digital security infrastructure, hosting all components internally to ensure tight operational oversight. Now, this setup can be advantageous for organizations requiring tight security measures and control to meet specific regulatory demands, but it presents several challenges.

The initial investment is huge, which involves costs for specialized hardware like hardware security modules (HSMs), secure facilities, and the recruitment of skilled personnel to set up and maintain the infrastructure. Scaling and maintenance of such a system to meet the needs of a growing organization demands effort and intensive planning. It is not easy to achieve compliance with regulatory standards like GDPR and ISO 27001 in an on-premises PKI, as it requires manual configuration and regular adjustments which needs a dedicated team of experts, given the pace at which cyber threats and regulatory standards are evolving. Deployment itself is complex as it requires careful planning and compliance with various security policies which can vary from organization to organization.

Benefits of Cloud-based PKI

Cloud-based Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) offers a range of benefits that make it an attractive solution for organizations seeking to manage their digital certificates and encryption keys efficiently. It provides high availability and scalability, which enables businesses to scale their infrastructure as they grow without worrying about PKI service outages. Organizations benefit from reduced infrastructure management with cloud PKI, as the service provider handles software updates, patches, and overall system upkeep. Reduced infrastructure management and the pay-as-you-go model of cloud PKI services result in a reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).

Cloud-based PKI also provides strong security measures; tasks like root CA onboarding are performed remotely and securely, and policy enforcement is consistent throughout the infrastructure. It also provides seamless processes for issuing certificates as well as for renewal, rotation, and revocation. On-demand issuance of certificates is enabled through APIs and cloud-native services using various protocols, including ACME, SCEP, and EST. Automatic renewals and key rotations minimize the risk of interrupted services or security. Additionally, Cloud-based PKI supports modern cryptographic standards like ECC and RSA to ensure regulatory compliance and also helps in the seamless integration of SaaS platforms or hybrid infrastructures to ensure centralized and flexible management of digital certificates.

Challenges

Cloud-based PKI services have their advantages, but they do not come without cons. The biggest drawbacks of Cloud-based PKI systems are lack of control over the infrastructure, customization, compatibility, and compliance issues. Because the solution is quite often standardized, customization might be restricted, i.e., proprietary APIs may not fully align with the organization’s existing infrastructure, and thus, it would fail to satisfy certain organizational needs or the specific use cases it needs to address. Organizations tend to have minimal control and visibility and must rely on the cloud provider’s approaches and procedures for security and management purposes.

The next possibility is having varying levels of compatibility when associating Cloud-based PKI with original legacy systems, third-party services, or specific internal standards. Legal and regulatory compliance challenges may arise as organizations must comply with different jurisdictional requirements based on the data center location of the cloud provider. Therefore, an organization should take great care in choosing a provider to ensure that it matches the organization’s security and operational needs. 

Ensuring Security in Cloud-based PKI

One of the most important aspects of cloud PKI security is trusting an external provider to manage sensitive certificates and keys. To establish an effective cloud PKI, an organization should apply best practice principles when choosing the right provider. In order to choose the right provider, knowing your organization’s needs and assessing the cloud provider’s services is crucial.

Most of these platforms employ strong encryption for safeguarding data in transit and at rest, while private keys are generally held in hardware security modules (HSMs) hardware security modules (HSMs) for secure handling. Measures like multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access control (RBAC) help ensure that sensitive assets are denied access by unauthorized personnel, along with strong auditing that guarantees accountability. Compliance with various standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR makes cloud PKIs well-aligned with security practices and regulations.

Expecting a provider to meet these requirements will make it significantly easier to ensure a secure Cloud-based PKI. However, security in cloud PKI follows a shared responsibility model in which the organization configures access controls, develops policies, and manages privileges for end-to-end protection, whereas the cloud provider ensures the underlying infrastructure’s security, availability, and compliance with industry standards. These cloud vendors promise a high level of security. However, it is still advised that organizations keep an eye on identifying vendors and their internal practices to mitigate risks and maintain trust.

How can Encryption Consulting help?

Whether you are concerned about setting up a fresh Cloud-based PKI or migrating an on-prem PKI to a cloud-native infrastructure, we at Encryption Consulting ensure a seamless transition, enhanced security, and regulatory compliance of your PKI environment. Our services range from deployment, PKI consultation, infrastructure assessments, security audits, and policy enforcement to certificate lifecycle management and workflow automation for your PKI infrastructure. Request a demo and get started. 

Conclusion

The future of Cloud-based PKI has bright prospects, as technological advancements will further improve its capabilities. Considering that hybrid cloud environments, IoT devices, and edge computing will soon be adopted more, cloud PKI is expected to play a vital role in providing the very security that most complex digital ecosystems will need. With quantum computing on the verge of eminent, cloud PKI providers may introduce quantum-proof algorithms i.e., post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms such as lattice-based, hash-based, and code-based encryption schemes to safeguard sensitive data against quantum attacks, ensuring that security remains future-proof. Cloud-based PKI will sufficiently enable secure digital transformations across industries because organizations will, in the long run, give more importance to agility and scalability in their security.