Box has been talking for more than year about letting its customers manage their own encryption keys, allowingthem to store data in the cloud while maintaining control over who gets to access it.

This isnt a straightforward problem to solve, because Boxs whole business is built on making it easier to share data and collaborate. The strictest security controls could eliminate the reason 44,000 companies are paying Box.

Today, Box says it has a new product that gets the job done. Called Enterprise Key Management (EKM), the service puts encryption keys inside a customers own data center and in a special security module stored in an Amazon data center. The Box service still must access customers data in order to enable sharing and collaboration, but EKM makes sure that only happens when the customer wants it to, Box says.

When asked if the service would prevent Box from handing data over to the government, acompany spokesperson said, Unless the customer provides authorization to Box to provide the content thats asked for, Box is prevented from sharing the content. When customers use Box EKM we are not able to provide decrypted content because we dont have the encryption keys protecting the customers content.

Without EKM, Box could be forced to hand data over to the government without notifying the customer if the government request is valid and requires Box to keep it secret.

As Box describes it, EKM would make it a lot harder to hide government requests. The service is being used in beta by about 10 businesses, including Toyota and World Bank Group, and will be generally available to Box enterprise customers in the spring for an added fee.

Box has 48 percent of the Fortune 500 as customers, with millions of individual users, but there are still some customers that cant adopt the cloud, super regulated businesses in financial services, some very large energy companies, some major insurance companies, obviously government agencies and departments, Box cofounder and CEO Aaron Levie told Ars.

These customers want more control over file encryption, but "the challenge is a bunch of these solutions essentially break what we're really good at, which is our end user experience," Levie said. "A lot of our in-line security capabilities like virus scanning, content previewing, and information rights management, all the capabilities where we add on top of your content, tend to break down in a world where we're not helping you manage that encryption."

EKM relies on a Hardware Security Module (HSM) made by SafeNet, which is placed inside Amazon's CloudHSM service. Unlike most Amazon cloud services, this one gives each customer dedicated hardware.

CloudHSM "allows you to protect your encryption keys within HSMs designed and validated to government standards for secure key management," Amazon says. "You can securely generate, store, and manage the cryptographic keys used for data encryption such that they are accessible only by you."

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Box hands cloud encryption keys over to its customers

DUBLIN, Feb .10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6376kr/encryption) has announced the addition of the "Encryption Software Market by Applications, by Deployment Type & by Regions - Global Forecast and Analysis 2014 - 2019" report to their offering.

The global Encryption Software Market is expected to grow from $1.85 billion in 2014 to $4.82 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21.1% during the forecast period 2014-2019.

The encryption software market is fast gaining traction mainly due to the introduction and reception of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, the growing demand among organizations for augmenting efficiency through safeguarding data transfer with the help of emails across mobile devices. Additionally, the rising data security apprehensions involved in business information access and transfer across these devices further demands security solutions.

Today, organizations are quickly embracing data security solutions to supplement flexible work culture among workforce in a secure manner as it delivers the employees with flexibility in work patterns, and thereby augments the productivity of the companies. Further, the growing volume and strength of cyber-attacks and commercial espionage along with rising proclivity of mobile devices loss and theft is further empowering the adoption of encryption solutions for enabling secure transmission of data across these devices and abstaining commercial espionage and cyber-attacks. Furthermore, the adoption of encryption software is fortified due to the evolution of mandate regulatory standards related to data transfer and its security, that needs to be complied with, across diverse industry verticals such as PCI DSS for BFSI and HIPPA for healthcare, as these solutions adhere with certain specific regulatory norms and enable secured access to data and its transmission across diverse devices including PCs, and mobile devices. Hence, the emergence of these solutions is further adding to the demand of encryption software across the world.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

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Encryption Software (Disk Encryption, File/Folder Encryption, Database Encryption, Communication Encryption, Cloud ...

Box wants customers to trust it with their most sensitive data. So the cloud-storage and -management company Tuesday said it will soon offer extra encryption that Box says will keep everyone out even Box.

For an undisclosed fee, Box customers will manage the encryption keys used to scramble their data housed on Box servers. In theory, that means only the customer, or people authorized by the customer, will have access to the files.

The new offering checks three strategic boxes for Box.

- It could help win confidence among companies with highly sensitive information, in industries such as banking, specialized manufacturing or health care.

- It could make overseas customers more comfortable handing data to an American company. The Edward Snowden leaks showed international customers that the U.S. government uses court orders to obtain data on the users of Silicon Valley companies. In theory, the new services would prevent Box from handing over user content.

- Its a new source of revenue for Box, which started trading shares publicly last month amid promises from Chief Executive Aaron Levie to boost revenue.

Files stored on Box are routinely encrypted. When a customer logs in, the password tells Box to decrypt the file with a special key for that file. Box keeps that key on its servers.

The new offering will add a second layer of encryption that requires a key stored elsewhere.

Box customers will rent space on encryption-key storage devices managed by Amazon Web Services. Made by SafeNet, the device is allegedly tamper-proof and logs all requests for the keys it holds. Amazon rents use of them to its customers.

Amazon and Box maintain they cant access user data, because they have no access to the SafeNet device.

Excerpt from:
Box Offers Extra Encryption in Bid for Additional Trust

USB drives that are fast and mobile clearly have uses for certain customers, especially those requiring security. Ultimately, these devices and their encryption features need to be managed by IT to truly keep sensitive data safe.

TORONTO More than a year ago I wrote about how little use I had for a box of USB thumb drives Id collected over the years, but not all readers agreed with me, pointing out the various benefits of having one handy.

Since then, Ive pulled out a thumb drive once to re-flash some firmware on a media streamer. The fact that I work from home means I dont have much need to transport data, and if need be, most of my important documents can be grabbed from the cloud when Im on the go using any device.

But I can see why some users or organizations might need to a portable drive sometimes you just cant connect to the cloud securely enough or at all, or the file you need is so large, downloading it is inconvenient. Or you dont really trust cloud services at all.

Portable drives can pose a security risk as well. Next to hacked databases, often most of the high-profile data-theft stories we hear about are due to lost or stolen USB drives that were not secure and were holding data that should never have left the corporate firewall in the first place.

Thats why Kingston still sees a market for portable USB flash drives. In fact, its growing, according to Ken Campbell, the companys encrypted USB business manager. Specifically, the opportunity is in encrypted drives, a product area that grew 19% in 2014 over the 2013, he said.

Security is still high on peoples minds, Campbell said in a telephone interview, and they always need to transfer data. There are times where there is no Internet and you have to carry data around somewhere.

WiFi is perceived to be more ubiquitous than it really is. I make sure all of my critical documents are available offline on all my computers in case I lose connectivity on long train rides, for example, so I can be productive while travelling.

But its security where Kingston sees the opportunity. The company is targeting corporate customers and government organizations that are intentionally moving data on portable USB flash drives with encryption and management tools. The company recently announced two versions of the DataTraveler 4000 Gen. 2, including one that Kingston calls Management Ready. Both are FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified with data protected by hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption in XTS mode.

The Management Ready version can be managed centrally, letting the IT department control drives when plugged into a device with Internet connectivity. Campbell said the DataTraveler also doesnt allow data to be put on a public partition; Kingston wants organizations to know they have a secure option for taking data outside the network. Encryption, combined with the speed of USB 3.0, is what customers are ultimately looking for in a portable flash drive, he said.

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Portable Flash Drives Benefit From Encryption