Analysis of Encryption Key Management Systems: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Abstract

As more and more enterprises encrypt data in order to adhere to information security policies and compliance rules, centralized key management is becoming increasingly relevant. Among the many available key management systems, it is difficult to select the one that would suit enterprise needs. To the best of our knowledge, no research to date has been conducted to assist small business in selecting an optimal encryption key manager. Based on studying the small business requirements, we presented the strengths and weaknesses of key management systems and analyzed what opportunities and threats it faces during the implementation. We summarize the results in a SWOT analysis of the five systems by evaluating 20 attributes related to the complexity of implementation, tool's popularity, linked vulnerabilities and technical performance in terms of response time and network usage. We concluded that Hachicorp Vault was determined to be the most suitable system for small businesses.