Questions To Ask Your Encryption Supplier
- Security
- How well is the key protected?
- The computer is stolen and returned. Can you tell if the data has been compromised? (If you cannot tell you must put your data compromise plan into action.)
- Is the data held in a tamper respondent enclosure?
- Where is the weak link? (This is how the attacker will attack it.)
- Is the key accessible from the network?
- Is a brute force attack possible?
- Trust
- Where are the encryption electronics made?
- Are the designers and manufacturers security cleared?
- Is the finished encryptor delivered so it cannot be modified prior to installation?
- Can the encryption be modified by an internet attack?
- Has it been accredited by a trustworthy organisation?
- Convenience
- Is authentication (password + token) easy to remember (yet hard to guess) so it is not written down to make it is easy to discover?
- If the computer with encryption fails can the encrypted data be easily moved to a new computer so you can continue to work?
- Will the same solution suit all your computers and operating systems?
- How long after shutting down the computer does it take to become secure? Inconvenient when moving it or putting it away. (Good software encryption needs time to put itself away, to hide its implementation and purge its key and your data)
- Does the encryption functionality reside in Microsoft Unsupported Code? Do you have to check security updates do not prevent your encryption working prior to installing them on all your computers?
- Does it require the complete drive to be encrypted prior to use? How many hours does it take to complete this?
- Capacity
- What is the encryption speed? (Remember encryption uses resources: so comparing with an unencrypted drive only tells you encryption is happening.)
- What size of data do you wish to encrypt? (Remember the more you have the more you can loose)
- What is the data addressing limit?
- Is all the data encrypted?
- Is plain text pass-through possible?
- Value for money
- If you install a new service pack or operating system will it still work? (Future Proofing)
- How much computer maintenance work does it need over its service life?
- How long does it take to resolve an encryption problem?
- How often does it need to be returned to base for a new key to be loaded?
- How much does the server infrastructure cost to purchase and maintain?
- What is the cost of a data compromise? (Can be measured in Millions of £s; closure of company; lives lost.)
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