Encryption has been in the news for the last week following the court order requiring Apply to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook for the FBI. Both the Bureau and Apple are working the court of popular opinion from different angles. The FBI’s argument is that they requested Apple’s help unlocking one phone, to gain more information on a known terrorist responsible for an attack that killed 14 and left 22 people wounded. Apple claims that creating a one-off version of iOS to get the data off Farook’s phone will be used by law enforcement beyond the one phone or worse, make it out into the wild and compromise security of all Apple phones.
Clearly this specific case about encryption will continue to play out over the coming weeks, if not months and years. The stakes are incredibly high, both from a security standpoint, as well as from a business perspective. With large companies like Apple dealing internationally with governments far less inclined to the principles of personal freedom and privacy, how this resolves impacts other markets significantly.
Encryption and Uplogix
Encryption can refer to transit encryption and encryption in storage. Uplogix utilizes SSH v2 authentication/encryption as well as a FIPS-certified Open SSL library. In fact, the Uplogix platform itself is FIPS 140-2 Level Two Certified. Our solid state hard drives are available with AES-256 disk encryption, and only the SSH port is open by default.
As a closed appliance, we’re inherently more secure than other console servers on the market. The underlying Linux OS does not have root access, which eliminates threat vectors possible with an open console server.
Our feature set extends role-based administrative access policies to devices with detailed auditing and reporting for compliance when the network is up, or down. This is important, because in the heat of the moment when network problems arise, urgency often prevails over security. Break-glass root passwords are issued to empower technicians to console connect to devices and resolve issues, any centralized administrative audit is off-line, and carefully crafted policies intended to protect data are quickly bypassed setting the stage for a serious breach, unintended or not.
For more information on how Uplogix can improve cybersecurity in your network management, take a look at out-of-band for stronger network security.
