Enhancing Data Security in Telecommunication with CipherTrust Manager Rollout

Company Overview

With data security’s utmost importance in today’s date, we worked closely with a telecommunication firm to find a reliable solution to create a strong security infrastructure. Our client, one of the leading telecom companies in the United States, employs more than 65,000 people and handles data for millions of users. The client base is huge, and new services are being launched every other day, which makes the company process large volumes of sensitive customer information on a routine basis.

For telecom service providers, top priorities are service quality and data security for their users. With more than three decades of expertise and a nationwide and international presence, they recognized the urgent need to enhance their data protection measures.

Their network grew daily, and as new rules and regulations took effect, they saw that their current systems could no longer support them.

Challenges

The company faced issues handling several keys they used for various security purposes like encryption and code signing. The keys were scattered, and it was difficult for them to keep track of them, monitor their usage, and set proper access controls.

The client also wanted to scale their key management infrastructure with multiple CipherTrust Manager nodes, but it was challenging for them to figure out ways to tackle issues concerning it. The challenges included additional nodes causing resource overload, difficulties syncing these nodes across various locations, and issues with integration and expansion. The geographically distributed setup made this task more difficult.

The client had several systems configured in separate environments; some were on-premises, and some were on public clouds such as Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS. All these systems were developed differently with different configurations and protocols. Due to this, applying the same encryption key management principles to all the systems took a lot of work.

The hybrid and multi-cloud architecture made their IT team’s operational process more difficult. They had to handle extra tasks, including maintaining several systems with different settings, managing manual procedures, and coordinating across many environments. A centrally integrated, uniform solution simplifying all the operations across several platforms without adding to the load was desperately needed.

They also needed to store data in various places while adhering to data residency standards like the CCPA and GDPR. The complexity of handling data stored in different places—ensuring that sensitive information is encrypted, access controls are consistently applied, and compliance documentation is maintained— made compliance with regulations even more difficult.

The difficulty was not choosing a single solution but rather creating an architecture that could handle the complex requirements of several nodes while staying integrated and easy to maintain. And they needed the most help in this area.

Solution

They sought our support as they dealt with the complicated processes of protecting sensitive information while complying with strict security and compliance regulations. They aimed to unite and streamline their key management, improve security across all systems, and meet compliance standards without making things more complex.

The customer presented us with all their issues, which required immediate attention. After carefully reviewing each problem they were experiencing and learning about their specific needs and challenges, we created a thorough architecture that specified CipherTrust Manager’s intended features and determined its relevant use cases. We started the implementation process by setting up a test environment for onboarding applications, where we thoroughly tested various use cases.

This involved verifying the solution’s functionality against the intended use cases and accurately documenting our test findings to ensure accountability and transparency. Once we were satisfied with the test results, we deployed the solution in a development environment. This initial deployment enabled us to customize the settings and resolve any remaining issues before transitioning to the production environment. We utilized physical and virtual appliances per the client’s security requirements and business needs in the solution.

The physical application, like the Hardware Security Module (HSM), served as a secure Root of Trust for key management as this integration ensured that encryption keys were generated, stored, and managed securely within the HSM, providing a high level of protection and the virtual application, like Ciphertrust Cloud Key Manager (CCKM), enabled us to manage encryption keys across on-premise systems and various cloud environments.

We started this project with the design phase, where we collaborated with our client to develop a strategy for deploying multiple nodes across various environments, including on-premises and cloud. This careful planning allowed us to define how CipherTrust Cloud Key Manager (CCKM) would integrate into the architecture. We defined the procedures and data flow between the nodes and CCKM to ensure a smooth key management operation.

CipherTrust Manager’s flexible architecture made centralized key management easier while ensuring that every node was scalable and performance-optimized. This made it easier to add additional nodes without interfering with already-existing functionalities as the client’s network grew. It enabled smooth growth and improved infrastructure security.

We developed configurations supporting several protocols and APIs for integrating the CipherTrust Manager into various types of settings, including private clouds, public cloud services, and on-premises infrastructures, meeting each specific need. In order to make the process as easy as possible for anyone involved, we took steps to ensure smooth communication and integration across these many platforms.

To simplify operations, we centralized key management for all encryption keys, allowing the client’s IT staff to monitor and control encryption functions throughout the whole infrastructure from a single dashboard. Furthermore, CipherTrust Manager’s automation features—like key rotation, policy enforcement, and automated certificate lifecycle management—have lowered manual effort and improved efficiency.

We’ve built CipherTrust Manager with all the capabilities the telecom industry needs to remain compliant. To comply with standard compliance laws, this comprises automated key management, encryption guidelines, access control, authentication, logging and reporting, data residency, key rotation, and expiration procedures. We ensured that sensitive information and encryption keys were kept in safe cryptographic modules, such as Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), adhering to data residency regulations to further lower risk. This strategy made our customer feel highly reliable and confident in their compliance efforts.

The CipherTrust Manager we deployed was further integrated with databases, HSM, and CCKM to streamline operations. We implemented database integration by configuring CipherTrust Manager to manage encryption keys for sensitive data stored in the databases. This involved securing connections between CipherTrust Manager and the databases.

We deployed HSM and connected it with the solution. We configured CipherTrust Manager to use the HSM as a root of trust for key generation and storage. We also integrated CCKM to manage encryption keys across multiple cloud environments as established policies for key rotation and key access.

Our strategy focused on easy installation and smooth integration. As we helped our clients automate the process of configuring nodes by creating the required scripts, they were able to avoid the trouble of manually configuring and connecting every node, which would frequently result in complicated processes and possible mistakes. They could monitor everything from a single location because everything was centralized instead. Their employees can save time and lower the chance of errors by simply monitoring encryption throughout the network with a few clicks.

Impact

Following the integration of CipherTrust Manager, the customer saw a number of benefits that improved their company operations. In addition to resolving immediate difficulties, it was important to secure the system for future expansion. What had previously been a difficult and time-consuming procedure was made simple and effective, allowing employees to concentrate on other important duties. Here’s how these changes made an impact.

Thanks to centralized encryption key management, the customer could see their security environment in one place. This removed the need to look after different systems in on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud settings, saving significant time and simplifying the complexity that needed constant monitoring. The hybrid and multi-cloud solution enabled customers to grow their encryption infrastructure as their business developed. They were able to effectively and rapidly manage growing workloads since it made adding extra nodes an easy process.

CipherTrust Manager enabled the client to achieve effective encryption and key management across all its environments by centralizing and automating key management procedures. This offered the ability to standardize who possessed the keys to encrypt the data and improve key management, allowing auditors to readily establish where sensitive data exists and how it is protected.

Furthermore, by putting regulations in place that prohibited the storage of unencrypted data on any system—public cloud or on-premises—, the client was able to reduce the possibility of security compromise and establish a robust security standard. The automation features in CipherTrust Manager significantly reduced the workload of their IT team as automated alerts and reminders ensured that keys were always up to date. This automation helped the IT team be free from manual key management and helped them to focus on other high-priority tasks.

The solution ensured that data residency laws and regulatory compliance were followed in all operations. We placed the customer in an audit-prepared framework to ensure that it had employed the right encryption and data management practices per the required standards.

We also helped our client achieve maximum cost optimization through hybrid and multi-cloud implementation. They solely employed the on-prem system for sensitive workloads that required more physical security. For less sensitive operational tasks, they used the public clouds since they provided cheap and flexible solutions that were secure enough. This balanced approach optimizes costs while keeping security high regardless of the environment.

Their current issues were resolved, and the remedy prepared them to face new ones. They have the capacity to handle growing laws, expanding data, and emerging security risks as a result of a secure encryption system.

Conclusion

In addition to solving the issues of the present, the effective implementation of CipherTrust Manager gave them a solid, adaptable, and scalable foundation for the future. They now have a simple yet reliable data security solution that can easily include new standards and expand to meet the complexity of the telecommunications industry. This is just one example of how finding the proper answer could transform a business. We helped our customer strengthen their security framework by tackling such issues with the proper and suitable methods. The best part is that they are now ready for whatever comes their way next.

If you want to simplify your key management, make your data more secure, and keep up with a changing regulatory environment, then CipherTrust Manager may be your tool. Let us discuss how it can work for you!