What are the challenges in enterprise key management?

What are the challenges in enterprise key management?

Some of the challenges in enterprise key management include:

  • Resource Intensive and Complex: It involves maintaining strong security measures and allocating enough time and effort to manage the entire key management process across hybrid environments.
  • Scalability: As organizations expand globally, there's a need to manage a large volume of encryption keys across various systems and applications.
  • Compliance: Key management practices and audits follow strict regimes and procedures and will not surpass any policy-compromising data.
  • Integration: It demands substantial effort to ensure the  key management system is compatible with the existing systems and technologies and creates no disruption to operations.
  • Access and Authorization: It needs to strike the right balance between security and usability, i.e., granting sufficient access for authorized personnel while preventing unauthorized individuals from gaining control over encryption keys.
  • Key Storage: It requires safeguarding encryption keys in tamper-proof devices to protect them from physical and logical attacks, insider threats, or unauthorized access.
  • Key Recovery: It involves complex processes, such as verifying the person's identity requesting key recovery, and ensuring proper authorization. Poor recovery and backup mechanisms can create vulnerabilities and weaken overall security.
  • Key Synchronization: Establishing a standardized approach, managing the dynamic nature of modern IT environments leading to discrepancies in key management practices and distributed or decentralized infrastructures, such as cloud environments or hybrid setups, complicate synchronization.