AWS & Fortanix – Supporting Digital Sovereignty in the Cloud

Protecting data from cybercriminals (or from accidental exposure due to human error) is fundamental to any cybersecurity strategy. A core part of this data protection is the use of strong encryption for data at rest or in transit over networks. Underlying this encryption are cryptographic keys that enable the encryption and subsequent decryption of data when it’s being transmitted or processed.

In the current IT landscape, a significant portion of the data that an organisation has responsibility for is likely to be stored on a cloud platform such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. These platforms provide the capability to store the cryptographic keys needed in the cloud service. However, using these native cloud-based key management services presents a problem for many organisations operating in Europe.

A 2020 ruling of the European Court of Justice known as Schrems II means that organisations who are working with personally identifiable information (PII) of citizens within the European Economic Area (EEA) have a legal responsibility to protect and control the movement of the data. The upshot of the ruling was that data controllers must protect it with state-of-the-art encryption and that they must also be in complete control of the cryptographic keys. Using the native key management of the cloud platforms does not meet the complete control requirement of the ruling.

Fortanix Cloud Key Management

Fortanix provides key management solutions for the leading public cloud platforms that enable cryptographic keys to be stored encrypted in the cloud with full management control of the master keys remaining solely with the key owner. We wrote about the Fortanix Google Cloud External Key Manager (EKM) in a previous blog. Fortanix now also supports an AWS KMS External Key Store (XKS).

The GCP and AWS solutions enable storing cryptographic keys securely and privately on those cloud platforms and deliver on the requirements of the Schrems II ruling.

Webinar: AWS & Fortanix: Supporting Digital Sovereignty in the Cloud

Fortanix and AWS discuss this additional level of protection in their webinar titled AWS & Fortanix: Supporting Digital Sovereignty in the Cloud.

During the event, Hildegard von Waldenfels and Wolfgang Joppich from Fortanix will be joined by Patrick Palmer from AWS to discuss how AWS KMS External Key Store helps elevate data privacy, sovereignty, and compliance in the cloud. Patrick will cover why AWS recommends that organisations should leverage this groundbreaking security innovation to protect their keys in AWS in a Schrems II compatible manner.

The webinar will also have a practical demonstration of Fortanix integration with AWS S3 buckets and show how the misuse of keys can be prevented by applying multi-control and role-based access control (RBAC) systems.

The webinar will deliver insights into the following:

Data protection + compliance concerns: What do GDPR and Schrems II demand?
Security framework in the cloud to meet complex compliances – Separating keys from data.
AWS and Fortanix: A perfect combination to secure your data in the cloud.
Learn how to create an AWS external key store and connect it to Fortanix DSM.
Learn how Fortanix DSM can manage keys for AWS cloud services through XKS.

Find Out More

Renaissance and Fortanix partner to make their security solutions available to MSPs and organisations in the Irish market. Contact us to arrange to speak to an expert in Fortanix solutions.