Encryption is becoming increasingly important to businesses that use System i because government and industry regulators are demanding privacy protections for customer data. And the cost of accidental releases of customer data is getting higher—from lost business to public relations disasters to lost jobs. As this is written, U.S. senators are calling for the resignation of the head of the U.S. Veteran's Administration over an incident in which a laptop containing 26 million unencrypted military veterans' files was stolen. Regulators and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned that the IT departments that are responsible for protecting data are not getting the job done.

Many organizations are looking at ways to encrypt sensitive data in their computer systems. And while at first this may seem like a simple enough task, a number of serious pitfalls can snare the uninitiated. First, cryptology is a science, not an art. Several well-known and scientifically proven encryption algorithms can be used to protect your data. They are known by cryptic acronyms like DES, AES, RSA, MD5, HASH, and SHA-1, and each has been proven to have a high degree of resistance to decryption through both reverse engineering and brute-force attacks. The first mistake that many people who are new to encryption make is to try to "invent" a new encryption algorithm. Most of these new inventions are mere data-scrambling techniques that can be broken in a matter of seconds with tools that are readily available on the Internet. Real encryption requires one of the vetted encryption algorithms mentioned above.

Another critical challenge for encryption is key management. Once your data is properly encrypted, the encryption key is the only way to bring the data back to usable form. Therefore, you must protect your keys carefully, guard against copying and duplication, and make sure they are not left around for someone to acquire. You must also have a sure and tested method of key backup and retrieval, because if a key gets lost, the data that key encrypted is lost as well.

For these reasons (and others), companies are turning to security experts to provide encryption software packages. PowerTech offers a robust encryption solution that uses the AES 256 bit encryption algorithm. AES is the encryption standard selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. government to protect sensitive information in private and public applications. It is also a recommended encryption standard for the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Visa privacy standards. When you use an encryption standard such as AES, you ensure that your organization is complying with the best practices outlined by leading encryption standards organizations.

PowerTech Encryption offers a comprehensive key management system that will assist in the creation, management, and archiving of the critical keys to your data. You can create traditional keys for most applications and split keys (where two people each know only half of the key) for highly sensitive applications, including credit card data (a PCI requirement). Key management is such an important part of encryption software that it should be a primary element when defining the requirements for an encryption solution.

Once you have a strong encryption algorithm and rich key management in place, you're ready to start encrypting your precious data. With PowerTech Encryption, you have the choice of encrypting data in transit (through FTP or other file transfer methods), encrypting backup data on tape, or even encrypting the data as it resides in DB2/400 files on your disk drives. PowerTech Encryption works with your business needs to achieve the level of encryption that your data requires. And interchanging data with customers and business partners is a breeze. With PowerTech Encryption, your partners don't have to have an iSeries system to decrypt your data. PowerTech Encryption makes it easy to share data with trusted partners, in the most secure manner possible.

If you'd like to see PowerTech Encryption in action, contact us for a product demonstration and a free trial of the software. Contact the PowerTech group by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit our Web site. And check out PowerTech's other offerings in the MC Showcase Buyer's Guide.

John Earl is Vice President and CTO of The PowerTech Group. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

John Earl is the founder and Director of Technology and Security for  The PowerTech Group.  a Seattle-area software company that specializes in System i security. He has over 25 years experience with IBM midrange systems and security, has published numerous articles and columns for industry magazines, and served as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Security for COMMON. A highly regarded speaker on OS/400 and i5/OS security, Mr. Earl has presented several hundred of iSeries security sessions at industry conferences and user groups all over the world. He is a three-time winner of COMMON's Speaker Excellence award and has also served on the board of directors of COMMON U.S.

 

He can be reached at 253.872.7788 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..