Application-Level Encryption: Enable Applications to Interact with Encrypted Files

When applications require access to sensitive and protected data, challenges and obstacles are the norm. Traditional encryption breaks workflows and creates a ripple effect that disrupts operations. However, you can modernize and optimize with application-level encryption that enables applications to interact with encrypted files.

Let’s review how this works and why it’s time to make a change regarding application encryption.

The encryption you’re currently using may have limitations and is disruptive. Here’s why.

First, there’s the “break” in applications and workflows. They can’t read or process encrypted files. As a result, processes fail, which impacts productivity, efficiency, and automation.

Second, unencrypted disk exposure occurs. For applications to work, encrypted data must be decrypted and written to disk. This occurrence creates moments when sensitive data is unencrypted, introducing risk and compliance gaps.

Third, most encryption solutions don’t provide broad platform coverage. They typically only cover Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you’re using systems like Unix or IBM i, you’ll have workflow failures.

To remove the barriers described above, organizations must transition to a new way to encrypt at the application layer. This approach leverages an SDK (software development kit) to embed encrypt and decrypt functions into applications, allowing them to process encrypted data without disrupting workflows.

How It Works

An SDK provides in-stream encryption and decryption within the application. This means data never has to be written to disk in an unencrypted state for the application to ingest data.

This approach is critical for accessibility and seamless workflow as well as compliance. Organizations operate across desktops, servers, file shares, custom applications, automated workflows, and multiple operating systems.

Application-level encryption enables a consistent encryption model across all environments, applications, and workflows. Once embedded, the SDK applies the same encryption logic wherever data is accessed, ensuring protection remains continuous as data moves through the organization. This is essential for compliance, as regulations such as GLBA, PCI DSS, and HIPAA require data encryption both at rest and in motion.

The Workflow

Organizations can keep workflows intact and ensure encryption, no matter where the data lives or goes. In short, it looks like this:

1. Data is created or received by a transactional platform and is encrypted immediately.
   Encryption happens at creation or ingestion, so the data is protected at rest from the start. This may apply to transaction logs, check images, files, or other sensitive data.
2. Encrypted data is moved or batched across systems as-is.
   The data can be batched, transferred, or routed to downstream systems or applications without being decrypted. Encryption remains intact while the data is in motion.
3. The application decrypts data in-stream using the SDK.
   Decryption does not occur by writing a decrypted file to disk. Instead, the SDK decrypts the data in memory, inside the application, at the moment of use.

To ensure consistent security and compliance, the above workflow must operate uniformly across all platforms. SDK-based encryption should support a broad range of environments beyond Windows and macOS, including Linux, UNIX, and IBM i. You can apply the same security and compliance controls across all systems and applications.

So, how does all this work in the real world? Here are some examples.

A firm wanted to avoid any data exposure in its case files without affecting its workflows. There were multiple systems, including Citrix, Python, R, and Strat, which all needed to access and process sensitive datasets.

Applications couldn’t read the encrypted files, causing analysts to decrypt data manually. This was a strain on resources and created exposure risk. It was a broken process with major security gaps.

By embedding encryption in applications with SDK, the process is now seamless:

• Data encryption is present at rest and in transit.
• Applications and scripts can programmatically decrypt data in memory.
• No unencrypted data is written to disk.

This new integrated compliance workflow solution solves the operational issue while ensuring protection of data and compliance with regulations.

For encryption to be frictionless, it must move with your data. You need to be able to encrypt and decrypt in applications and workflows without being blocked. There’s no need to choose between operational efficiency and compliance with PK Protect Endpoint Manager (PEM).

PEM’s SDK provides for both in one solution. We’ve covered the workflow aspect of this challenge. Now, you can learn more about compliance uses in our post, Simplifying Application-Layer Encryption for Frictionless Compliance.