9.5 Key-Management System Survivability

Before · SP 800-57 Part 1 Rev. 4

After · SP 800-57 Part 1 Rev. 5

Key-Management System Survivability

Before · SP 800-57 Part 1 Rev. 4

After · SP 800-57 Part 1 Rev. 5

A failure in a key-management system or its environment could hamper or prevent access to an organization’s stored information. Disaster recovery requires having procedures and a sufficient backup capability to recover from facility damage, utility service outages, communication and computation outages, hardware and software failures, and other failures that result in the corruption or loss of the stored key information or the key-management system itself. OMB11/01 106 notes that encryption is an important tool for protecting the confidentiality of disclosure-sensitive information that is entrusted to an agency’s care but that the encryption of agency data also presents risks to the availability of information needed for mission performance. Agencies are reminded of the need to protect the continuity of their information technology operations and agency services when implementing encryption. The guidance specifically notes that without access to the cryptographic keys that are needed to decrypt information, organizations risk the loss of their access to that information. The guidance particularly stresses that agencies must address information availability and assurance requirements through appropriate data- recovery mechanisms, such as cryptographic key recovery. Consequently, it is prudent to retain backed up or archived copies of the keys necessary to decrypt stored enciphered information, including master keys, key-wrapping keys, and the related keying material necessary to decrypt encrypted information until there is no longer any requirement for access to the underlying plaintext information (see Section 9.5.2 and Tables 7 and 8 in Section 8.2.2.1 ).