Mcafee, Inc.

David Paul Webb

Mark Ian Gargett

Shashank Visweswara

Wayne Helm Gibson

Example methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to implement contextual key management for data encryption are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein are to identify a combination of context rules mapped to a key associated with encrypted data, the combination of context rules including at least two context rules. Disclosed example apparatus are also to discover first context information and second context information associated with the combination of context rules, the first context information obtained from a request to access the encrypted data, the second context information separate from the request. Disclosed example apparatus are further to evaluate the combination of context rules based on the first context information and the second context information to validate the request.

Contextual key management for data encryption

Example methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to implement contextual key management for data encryption are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed are to determine whether a key mapping is associated with a combination of two or more context rules defined for a set of context values associated with input data to be encrypted. Disclosed example apparatus are also to, in response to a determination that no key mapping is associated with the combination of two or more context rules, map a key identifier to the combination of two or more context rules and generate a key corresponding to the key identifier. Disclosed example apparatus are further to encrypt the input data based on the key to obtain encrypted data.

Example methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to implement contextual key management for data encryption are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein to perform contextual encryption key management, which are also referred to herein as contextual key managers, include an example context discoverer to discover context information associated with a request to access first encrypted data. Such disclosed example apparatus also include an example contextual key mapper to identify a combination of context rules associated with a key that is to provide access to the first encrypted data, validate the context information associated with the request based on the combination of context rules associated with the key to determine whether the request to access the first encrypted data is valid, and obtain the key from a key management service when the request to access the first encrypted data is valid.

Disclosed are systems and methods of employing a multi-ring encryption approach to secure a data payload. Each ring of encryption may be encrypted from a key derived from a password, such that each subsequent ring of protection is protected by a key derived from the key used to encrypt the previous ring of protection. Further, hardware-based encryption may be employed in one or more of the rings of protection to bind the encrypted payload to the hardware. Such systems and methods may be used to reduce the ability to parallelize an attack on encrypted data while also permitting password-related data to be synchronized across a network.

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Seaford, United Kingdom

David Paul Webb