Key Management

Key management encompasses the policies, procedures, and technical mechanisms for generating, distributing, storing, rotating, and destroying cryptographic keys. Encryption is only as strong as its key management — even the best encryption is useless if the keys are poorly protected, shared insecurely, or never rotated.

Proper key management includes generating keys using approved methods, protecting keys with access controls and encryption, distributing keys securely, rotating keys on a defined schedule, and destroying keys properly when they're no longer needed.