Envelope encryption is widely used in e-commerce to address data security challenges, particularly when handling sensitive information like customer payment details, personal identifiable information (PII), and transaction records. Here’s a breakdown of its application requirements and examples:
Application Requirements
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Data Confidentiality
- E-commerce platforms must ensure that sensitive data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. Envelope encryption allows data to be encrypted with a data encryption key (DEK), which is then further protected by a customer-managed key (CMK) or a key management service (KMS).
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Key Management Efficiency
- Managing encryption keys at scale is complex. Envelope encryption delegates key management to a secure KMS (e.g., Tencent Cloud’s Key Management Service), reducing the risk of key exposure while simplifying rotation and revocation.
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Compliance with Regulations
- E-commerce businesses must comply with data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS). Envelope encryption ensures that sensitive data is protected according to regulatory standards, with keys stored separately from encrypted data.
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Performance Optimization
- Encrypting large volumes of data (e.g., order databases, payment logs) can be computationally expensive. Envelope encryption allows DEKs to encrypt data locally while CMKs protect the DEKs, balancing security and performance.
Examples
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Payment Processing
- When a customer submits payment details (e.g., credit card numbers), the e-commerce platform generates a DEK to encrypt the data. The DEK is then encrypted with a CMK stored in Tencent Cloud KMS, ensuring that even if the database is compromised, the payment data remains secure.
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User Profile Storage
- Personal data (e.g., names, addresses, phone numbers) is encrypted using DEKs, while the DEKs are protected by a CMK. This ensures that user information is secure even if access to the storage layer is breached.
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Order Data Protection
- Order details (e.g., purchase history, shipping addresses) are encrypted at rest. Envelope encryption ensures that only authorized systems with access to the CMK can decrypt the DEKs and access the data.
For such use cases, Tencent Cloud’s Key Management Service (KMS) provides a secure and scalable solution for managing CMKs, while Tencent Cloud COS (Cloud Object Storage) and TencentDB support envelope encryption for data at rest.