Security and Risk Management with Data Encryption

Alliance Storage Technologies remains unrivaled in its dedication and effectiveness in protecting you from costly and time-consuming security breaches, information leaks, hackers and ransomware attacks. We recognize the criticality of protecting your archived data as vigilantly as you do your primary information assets. Among its key differentiators are Alliance’s embedded encryption and replication technology. These features are especially important for highly regulated industries such as legal, government, financial services, healthcare and insurance sectors.

Encryption Features and Benefits:

• Assures compliance with stringent industry regulations, HIPAA/HITECH, PCI requirements, and more
• Secures data silently in the background automatically protecting sensitive data.
• Prevents against accidental or intentional alteration of data
• Protects data from unauthorized access due to theft or loss of physical media while in transit
• Safeguards business reputation - the cost of a breach may include loss of customers, class action lawsuits, and damage to brands
• Eliminates the need for third party software (Alliance developer-integrated solution)
• Defends against corporate espionage or malicious attacks
• Reduces the risk of regulatory penalties that could result from a potential breach
• Increases confidence in the security of data stored off-site or in the Cloud

How does it work?

• The Alliance data encryption option is enabled through the Archive Management Software (AMS)
• Meets U.S. and Canadian guidelines with FIPS 140-2 compliant, AES 256-bit encryption algorithms
• Encryption applies to all data stored on optical media and Cloud-Integrated Storage
• Fileshare partitions are specified for encryption through AMS policies prior to being migrated to optical media or the Cloud
• Symmetric encryption keys for each file are generated and protected by symmetric encryption wrapping keys which are generated via FIPS 140-2 compliant random number generator
• License key management is implemented in accordance with NIST Special Publication 800-57 Recommendations for Key Management such that all keys are stored remotely away from the data
• Symmetric Encryption Keys for each data file are protected and stored in an encrypted format utilizing Symmetric Encryption Wrapping Keys for each Archive Volume

NAS Configuration Recommendations:

• Elite Storage Management System (SMS) recommended
• NAS library – select from Entry-Midrange to Enterprise
• Archive Management Software (AMS) with the Data Encryption option enabled, and/or Cloud and Replication

Worldwide Regulatory Mandates Protect Individuals Rights 

Regulatory Mandate Examples

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) - Enforces privacy standards that protect patients' medical records and other health information provided for health plans, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.  HIPAA HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) -  Expands the scope of privacy and security protections under HIPAA, increasing the potential legal liability for non-compliance.  

Financial Services Modernization Act (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) - Limits the disclosure of non-public personal information, and in some cases requires financial institutions to provide notice of their privacy practices and an opportunity for data subjects to opt out of having information shared.  National banking agencies mandate additional standards including: 

• Safeguards Rule requires financial institutions to ensure the security and confidentiality protect the consumer information they collect. 
• Red Flags Rule requires that each "financial institution" or "creditor"—which includes most securities firms—implement a written program to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft in connection with the opening or maintenance of "covered accounts
• Disposal Rule calls for the proper disposal of information in consumer reports and records to protect against “unauthorized access to or use of the information.”

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) - Unifying data privacy laws across the European Union, provides mandates for the protection of individual EU Citizens information and empowers their control of the retention and disposition of their data. 

California Civil Code §1798.82 - A security breach notification law requiring the disclosure to all residents of any breach where non-encrypted personal information was acquired by an unauthorized entity.

FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) – U.S. Government wide initiative and guidelines providing a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services, ensuring the security and auditability around sensitive data.

The NETArchive is designed for professional data archiving and its advanced features provide protection for the safeguarding of personal information.  With secure authenticated access to all data, and with optional data encryption, all data is secured from exposure.  Additionally, all files that need to be protected are archived in a permanent, unalterable state that is 100% secure, providing the highest level of data authenticity, unmatched by tape, disk, or other backup media technologies using software-based WORM emulation. Alliance data archiving solutions have been meeting the compliance, protection and permanence needs of corporations and government agencies for over 30 years.

Contact Alliance Sales at 719-593-7900 or submit a Request for Quote.

Data Archiving with Tape has Inherent Risk

Data Archiving is the process of moving fixed content data off of the current production system storage to specialized long-term archival storage systems.  This optimizes the performance of production system resources (space optimization, data backups) while providing cost efficiencies.

While tape mediums make sense for data backup, which require short-term retention and reuse, tape is not appropriate for data archiving. 

Tape Archiving Risk and Efficiency issues include:

• Tape was designed for backup
• Tape is a fragile media made of a thin magnetic film that wears with use.
• Tape is rewriteable media with Software WORM, not truly protecting data for compliance.
• Tape degrades over time, requiring constant monitoring and must be stored in a climate controlled environment. 
• With a limited shelf life, data migrations will be required over time.  This is a costly, time consuming process.
• Backward compatibility is limited, which will require technology refreshes over time.
• Write verify performance is slow, which adversely affects data archiving speeds.

Learn more about Selecting The Right Archiving Technology.

NETArchive True WORM Archive Storage Eliminates the Risk of Tape Archiving 

• NETArchive media was designed for archival storage and long- term record retention.
• NETArchive media is non-magnetic and laser reads without making physical contact so there is no media wear
• NETArchive is TRUE WORM, it is physically impossible to modify data once written, meeting the strictest regulatory compliance requirements.
• NETArchive media is extremely robust and offers an archival life estimate of greater than 100 years
• NETArchive media has extremely stable shelf life, requires no periodic maintenance and is much less sensitive to environmental conditions
• NETArchive AMS backward compatibility basically eliminates the need for technology refreshes.
• Random access media allows for high performance read / write operations to the active archive.

The NETArchive is designed for professional data archiving and its advanced features provides the ultimate data protection.  With secure authenticated access to all data, and with optional data encryption and high availability replication, all data is secured from exposure.  Additionally, all files that need to be protected are archived in a permanent, unalterable state that is 100% secure, providing the highest level of data authenticity, unmatched by tape, disk, or other backup media technologies using software-based WORM emulation. Alliance data archiving solutions have been meeting the compliance, protection and permanence needs of corporations and government agencies for over 30 years.

Contact Alliance Sales at 719-593-7900 or submit a Request for Quote.