With the annual cost of global cybercrime in the trillions of dollars, software storage of cryptographic keys for servers is increasingly vulnerable as attacks become more sophisticated. Cryptographic keys stored in software can be copied and are vulnerable to accidental distribution and remote theft. Even with diligently strict procedures in place, admins or malicious insiders can still backup keys to USB flash drives, FTP them, or share to others via a cloud storage service.

Yubico’s Hardware Security Module (HSM) solutions are tamper resistant and offer low cost, high security ROI in a portable ‘nano’ form-factor usable across devices and locations. With the YubiHSM 2 and YubiHSM 2 Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), organizations can prevent cryptographic keys from being copied. Designed with the same capabilities, the YubiHSM 2 is available as a FIPS 140-2 validated, Level 3 solution, or as a non-FIPS solution. Both solutions ensure uncompromised cryptographic hardware security for applications, servers and computing devices at a fraction of the cost and size of traditional HSMs. The YubiKey stores the authentication secret on a secure element hardware chip. This secret is never transmitted and therefore cannot be copied or stolen.

Developers can rapidly integrate support for either the FIPS or non-FIPS version of the HSM into business products and applications with capabilities like generating and importing keys, signing and verification, and data encryption and decryption. Use cases for YubiHSM 2 and YubiHSM 2 FIPS include:

• Secure cryptocurrency exchanges with secured cryptographic keys that help keep sensitive financial information safe.

• With the open-source SDK, developers building IoT applications can rapidly integrate with the ultra-portable YubiHSM 2 or YubiHSM 2 FIPS to protect cryptographic keys and keep critical IoT environments from falling victim to hostile takeovers.

• Secure the servers managing your cloud services and give your customers the peace of mind that their data is being protected with the added layer of YubiHSM 2 or YubiHSM 2 FIPS.

• Deploying the HSM to the Microsoft Active Directory Certificate services not only protects the Certificate Authority private keys but also protects all signing and verification services using the private key.

Microsoft and Yubico offer comprehensive, enterprise-wide MFA and passwordless solutions to deliver simple secure authentication solutions to users. With the recently added features of certificate-based authentication, conditional authentication strengths, Azure Virtual Desktop FIDO and certificate support as well as mobile support for iOS and Android devices with a YubiKey, we can protect your Microsoft ecosystem from cyber attacks.