How the Swiss communications giant Swisscom uses format-preserving encryption to protect 10 million sensitive customer records in 15 applications against misuse – without loss of performance or system changes.
Protecting data and avoiding application interruptions
Swisscom is one of the leading Swiss companies in telephony, internet and communications for business and private customers, as well as in IT services. To protect its more than 10 million customer records, a security solution was evaluated. In addition to protecting the data against cyberattacks or misuse, Swisscom listed the following points in its requirements specification:
Use in 15 different applications
Avoidance of application interruptions and performance losses
Protection of data at rest and in transit
No system changes
Dr Klaus Brand, Product Manager, Swisscom Security Products and Services, highlights the challenges: ‘In-system data encryption would mean a deep redesign of business-critical applications. We were worried about degrading system performance and we did not want to drastically modify our systems and processes in defining a suitable data security strategy.’
Proof of concept: analysis of data structures, data flows and integration points
After examining several security solutions, it quickly became clear that only data-centric security could meet Swisscom's high requirements. Focusing on encrypting the data instead of the costly protection of the entire infrastructure means that the enterprise encryption platform can be integrated into the existing IT architecture without complication.
In order to gain a sound understanding in advance of how the data to be protected is used and processed, Prewen carried out a proof of concept with the internal specialists. The data structures and data flows as well as the integration points were recorded and analysed. With the resulting understanding of the underlying processes and data processing, it was possible to determine which data is needed from which system in which form, and when the data must be available in plaintext and when not.
Phased integration and resilience to outages
Avoiding outages was the top priority for the implementation of the security solution – both during onboarding and in later operation. Swisscom therefore opted for a private, cloud-hosted encryption platform from Voltage SecureData, which was set up in two geo-redundant data centres. The roll-out to all departments and to the 15 planned systems took place step by step.
During the implementation, it was possible to draw on the findings from the data analysis. ‘Because we had such a comprehensive understanding of how our data flows, [the encryption platform] slotted right into our applications, without any changes required,’ says Dr Brand. As expected, the implementation went smoothly. At the same time, Prewen used training courses to prepare the responsible staff for using the solution.
Data encryption as a service
The decision to use data encryption as a service means that the security solution can be scaled without complication and without having to expand the infrastructure. Now that all 10 million records in 15 applications have been protected against cyberattacks and misuse, Dr Brand sees future potential for Swisscom: ‘We managed the most business-critical applications first, but there are many more applications that would benefit from our data-centric security approach.’
Additional areas, applications, software or systems can easily be included in Prewen's universally usable security solution.
Why Prewen and the data-centric approach?
The introduction of the security solution at Swisscom is an example of how companies with individual data processing needs can benefit from the scalability of data encryption as a service and from the format-preserving encryption method.
It is not only enterprise customers that benefit from this approach, but SMEs too. For those responsible for data security, it is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee security with conventional methods. They are looking for innovative solutions. The data-centric approach offers a flexible and so far unrivalled method for this – a paradigm shift towards future-proof data security.
Learn more about data-centric protection or Prewen's data security offering.
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