RSA has marked a McDonald’s-like landmark, quietly— over one billion applications and devices are now embedded with RSA® BSAFE® security software. No numbers changed under ubiquitous golden arches to mark this monumental achievement, but it did get me thinking on how deep an impact RSA BSAFE has had in the broad industry sectors as well as at EMC in particular…
Can you count how many of your everyday applications and devices have “RSA BSAFE Inside” today?
It is not unlikely that a foundational security technology will reach diverse products and applications, but it is nevertheless astounding to see the extent of the early reach of a security technology like RSA BSAFE. By offering validated FIPS 140 and Suite B cryptographic standards security, the RSA BSAFE products have been embedded into a myriad of application software and device hardware, as well as in developer tools that ensure security.
Corporations that have embedded RSA BSAFE to encrypt and protect their software applications and popular devices include Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, Sony, Nintendo, Konica-Minolta, Motorola, and Ericsson. RSA BSAFE developer tools have been incorporated for C/C++ by CA, and iPass , while its Java security platform extension have been used by the likes of BEA Systems and Informatica. Little wonder that the reach of BSAFE is so profound.
In how many ways has BSAFE protects you today?
In your email systems, document exchanges, public key infrastructure for e-transactions, secure transport in SSL, web services, gaming devices, browsers, point-of-sales system, mobile phones? I am continually amazed at the reach of BSAFE, as it is so widely distributed and deployed deep within commercial and government security applications.
And indeed, we are all the safer, a billion times over, and many times a day.
So what’s in it for them?
Why is it that so many companies have and continue to deploy BSAFE products and technologies? Following come to my mind— rapid time to market as BSAFE products are made available with APIs and toolkits for rapid and successful adoption; a broad portfolio optimized for adoption into various industry segments or applications; assurance with a FIPS 140 and Suite B cryptographic standards validated solution; and a justifiable purchase decision. But ultimately, it is the RSA assurance that must surely stand to good measure.
In security, Trust is and must be a strong currency.
EMC also has a long- established Trust in BSAFE
And it’s the same reasons that EMC has trusted BSAFE for its own products, too. EMC, before being acquired by RSA, needed to develop a secure access for credentialed services to its storage products deployed at our globally-distributed customer sites. BSAFE products were quickly adopted to enable secure communications and access control, along with RSA SecurID technology. Today, EMC’s Secure Service Credential has been shipped to several thousand customers, and BSAFE’s role in remote services is deeply embedded into EMC’s secure services capability.
In fact, so widespread is the requirement for BSAFE products within the entire EMC product portfolio, that BSAFE is now a distinct module in the EMC Common Security Platform [CSP]. Here, the BSAFE capabilities are leveraged consistently within any EMC Engineering development effort through the adoption of a Common Security Toolkit with BSAFE inside.
There are two applications for BSAFE that are leveraged at EMC through the CSP— protection of application secrets (passwords, configuration, etc) via encryption and secure storage (Lockbox) and secure communications particularly between the application and the LDAP directory (incl. AD) using SSL/TLS. Beyond this, there has been adoption of BSAFE for data confidentiality (data payload or bulk encryption) and data integrity (crypto-signing of files or documents).
For example, Documentum content management solutions use BSAFE for secure communications as well as for data confidentiality and integrity; PowerPath I/O management solution uses BSAFE for bulk encryption data confidentiality; and EMC ControlCenter storage resource management solution uses BSAFE for data integrity between its server and agents with an internal Certificate Authority (CA) to reduce the risk of common attacks such as man-in-the-middle attacks, cross-site scripting and command injection.
Once again, BSAFE is continuing its contributions to yet another mega-corporation that has document management, virtualization, cloud services, automation, storage and protection capabilities in its portfolio.
Rest assured…
One thing that BSAFE reminds me of is that technology that is effective will always be broadly adopted— inside and outside. Quietly, the RSA BSAFE bunny keeps marching on under the covers, assuring billions more….
This Blog is also available at RSA.com
Comments