Please provide contact details for GN4-3 project participants involved in this activity

Please provide names and contact details for additional (external) organisations involved in this Incubator project

This project investigates the usability of recently developed Cryptech HSM modules for various usecases we have in T&I in eduGAIN, eduroam, eduTEAMS, InAcademia and generally for federation operations.

The goal of the CrypTech project is to create an open-source hardware cryptographic engine that can be built by anyone from public hardware specifications and open-source firmware and operated without fees of any kind. The team working on the project is a loose international collective of engineers trying to improve assurance and privacy on the Internet. Several GEANT participating NRENs are principle investors and participants in this project.

In this phase we set up the devices to allow for testing and we collect the initial usecase we want to test and the people who will be testing.

Please describe the goals of pilot, including activities, participants, the community(ies) that require a solution. Describe when the pilot is done and how to measure the success of it, in a SMART way.

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https://cryptech.is/

Please describe the technical details for this pilot.

Top-down scheme of interests/work areas:

• Service needs and adoption path - Identifying (client) service-specific requirements, scenarios and usage patterns, in terms of use of the HSM platform and its supporting cryptoservice. Could extend towards actual implementation by some services

• Interoperability - Access methods and interfaces to be used by the client services with mapping/path towards the fulfilment of service requirements; this layer allows or at least facilitates substitution of underlying solutions (if/when needed) thorough some form of hardware and cryptographic algorithms abstraction, which, depending on service needs, may include consistent methods of remote access, front-end GUIs or applications, or wrapper APIs.

• HSM platform and its working environment:
  
  • Technical features - Performance levels and direct interfaces offered by the platform, including implementations of widely used specs and standards and platform-specific operational functions for import/export of cryptographic materials, access to logs, health check, disaster recovery, clear/reset, etc. A detailed list of technical criteria for evaluation (depending on the use cases and requirements) could include:
    • Performance for key generation and signing, and for asymmetric and symmetric cryptography algorithms;
    • Support for key cryptographic algorithms - e.g. RSA, DSA, ECC, 3DES, AES, SHA-1, MD5, etc.;
    • Programmability of the device (ability to execute code within the secure boundary);
    • Key storage capacity;
    • Form factor and connectivity - PCI, USB, Ethernet, etc.;
    • Audit and management capabilities;
    • Operating system and application support;
    • Remote access mechanisms;
    • Provided/supported user and admin tools;
    • Crypto API support - PKCS#11, MSCAPI, KMIP, JCA, etc,;
    • Supported/used cryptomaterial formats;
      
      
  • Operational aspects - Procedures, their practicality and suitability for the environment where the platform is deployed, physical/electromagnetic security arrangements. A detailed list of operational criteria for evaluation (depending on the use cases and requirements) could include:
    • Redundancy capability - suitability of procedures in the event of device failure;
    • Physical and logical security mechanisms;
    • Authentication mechanisms for access and/or defining the 'master secret';
    • Certifications - FIPS 140-2 (Level), Common Criteria;
    • Suitability of vendor documentation;
    • Vendor support and maintenance policy - bug fixing, patches, etc.;
    • Vendor credibility - business model, stability, etc.
    • Cost of ownership.
      
      
• Trustworthiness of the HSM platform - How one can attest that the offered platform is secure; system integrity and hardware tamper resistance; preliminary audit/analysis/observations, supporting evidence, what is required or good to have/know, are there some recognised/possible weaknesses, open issues.

What is the business case for this Incubator project? Who would be customers of this solution and what would potential business case look like?

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How do data protection and privacy impact this Incubator project? Think about e.g. handling of personal data of users

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When this Incubator project is completed, do you intend to continue using the solution? If yes, can you describe how you intent to sustain it? (E.g. through own staff, by using an e-Infrastructure provider, ...)

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