Creating Policies

A policy is a collection of rules that govern data access and encryption. Think of a policy as an if-then statement. Policy rules are processed sequentially. If the criteria of rule one are not met, the policy enforcement engine moves on to the second rule and so on.

Policies specify:

• Actors: Users, groups, and processes that are permitted/denied access to protected data.
• Actions: What actions authorized actors are allowed to perform. For example create/delete, read/write, decrypt, modify permissions, and so on.
• Files acted upon: Policy rules may apply to entire directories and mount points, or only to files named in a specific way (for example, .docx files may be encrypted and restricted to read-only access by designated users, while other files may be stored clear and read and written by anyone).

Additionally, every CTE policy specifies one or more encryption keys used to encrypt blocks of file data when applications write them, and decrypt them when they are read.

CTE encryption is transparent to applications. This means that the CTE Agent encrypts blocks of data as they are written, and decrypts data when they are read by authorized users and applications. This architecture separates administration of files from access to the data in them. Backup programs, for example, may be authorized to read files, but not view the data in them. Therefore, data can be backed up and taken offsite while remaining encrypted so that security is not breached.

The following diagram shows policies and how they relate to the GuardPoints, clients, and the CipherTrust Manager.

Before you can create a policy, policy elements should exist on the CipherTrust Manager. This section assumes that you have already created policy elements, as described in Creating Policy Elements.

When creating a policy, you can specify security rules, key rules, and data transformation (dataxform) rules that apply to the policy. At least one key or security rule must be added to a policy. Use the Create Policy wizard to create a policy.

Step 1: Specify General Information

To specify general information about policy:

1. Open the CTE application.

2. Click Policies. The Policies page shows the list of available policies.

3. Click Create Policy.

4. Specify a unique Name for the policy. For example, basic-access-policy or ldt-policy.

   • The name must start with a character. The maximum length can be 64 characters.

   • The name can contain alphanumeric characters, underscores ( _ ), and dashes ( - ).

   • The name cannot contain the following special characters:
     ? : ; | ! @ # $ % ^ & * < = > + ( ) { } ~ , \ / [ ] ' "

5. Select a Policy Type. The options are:

   • Standard: Access to data is blocked during initial encryption or rekeying of data. This is the default policy type. Refer to Creating Standard GuardPoints on Clients for details.

   • Live Data Transformation: Encryption and rekeying of data takes place in the background, without disrupting user or application access to that data. The LDT policy is available if you have a valid LDT license.

     If you select an LDT policy type, then the first security rule for the policy is created by default. This rule permits key operations on all resources for that policy, without denying user or application access to resources. This allows a rekey operation whenever the encryption key is versioned. This rule is always the first rule in an LDT policy and cannot be edited.

     • Refer to Enabling Live Data Transformation for more information about LDT.
     • An LDT policy is needed for creating LDT GuardPoints. Refer to Creating LDT GuardPoints on Clients for details.

   • Cloud Object Storage: Access to data is blocked during initial encryption or rekeying of data. This policy type is needed for creating GuardPoints for cloud storages. Refer to Creating Cloud Object Storage GuardPoints on Clients for details.

   • In-place Data Transformation (IDT): Access to data is blocked during encryption or rekeying of data. This policy type is needed for creating GuardPoints for Teradata clusters.

6. (Optional) Turn on the Learn Mode toggle. A warning message is displayed indicating that the policy is in Learn Mode.

   

   Refer to Learn Mode for details. By default, the toggle is turned off.

   Note

   Learn Mode is not applicable to In-place Data Transformation policies.

7. (Optional, applicable to Standard policies) Turn on the Data Transformation toggle. This option is used to create a dataxform policy. By default, the toggle is turned off.

   Note

   The Data Transformation option is not applicable to LDT, Cloud Object Storage, and In-place Data Transformation policies. For a dataxform policy, the Create Policy wizard shows five steps including the Data Transformation step, as shown below.
   

8. Click Next. The Security Rules screen is displayed.

For a standard dataxform policy, a security rule with the Action key_op, the Effect permit,applykey, and Browsing set to Yes is added automatically. Edit or delete the rule, as appropriate. Click the overflow icon () for options.

For an LDT policy, the default security rule with the Action key_op, the Effect permit,applykey, and Browsing set to No is added automatically. The rule is read only.

Step 2: Add Security Rules

1. Click Create Security Rule. The Create Security Rule dialog box is displayed. This dialog box contains the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Resource Set	(Applicable to Standard and LDT policies) Resource set for the rule.
   User Set	User set for the rule.
   Process Set	Process set for the rule.
   Action	Actions for the rule. Refer to Actions for the complete list of supported actions.
   Effect	Effect permission and options for the rule. This is a mandatory field.
   Allow Browsing	(Applicable to Standard and LDT policies) Whether browsing of directories under the GuardPoint down to the resources in the rule is allowed.

2. (Optional, applicable to Standard and LDT policies) Select a Resource Set.

   1. Click Select next to the Resource Set field. The list of available resource sets is displayed.

      Optionally, you can add a new resource set by clicking Create Resource Set. Walk through the Create Resource Set wizard, as described in Creating Resource Sets. The newly created resource set appears in the resource sets list.

   2. Select a resource set.

   3. (Optional) Select Exclude Rule to exclude the resource set from the policy. The security rule does not apply to this resource set.

   4. Click Select. The selected resource set appears in the Resource Set field.

3. (Optional) Select a User Set.

   1. Click Select next to the User Set field. The list of available user sets is displayed.

      Optionally, you can add a new user set by clicking Create User Set. Walk through the Create User Set wizard, as described in Creating User Sets. The newly created user set appears in the user sets list.

   2. Select a user set.

   3. Click Select. The selected user set appears in the User Set field.

4. (Optional) Select a Process Set.

   1. Click Select next to the Process Set field. The list of available process sets is displayed.

      Optionally, you can add a new process set by clicking Create Process Set. Walk through the Create Process Set wizard, as described in Creating Process Sets. The newly created process set appears in the process sets list.

   2. Select a process set.

   3. (Optional) Select Exclude Rule to exclude the process set from the policy. The security rule does not apply to this process set.

   4. Click Select. The selected process set appears in the Process Set field.

5. (Optional) Select an Action. Specify the type of file and directory action allowed on a GuardPoint. To specify all actions, leave the Action field blank.

   1. Click Select next to the Action field. By default, the Select Action(s) dialog box displays basic actions.

      To view advanced actions, expand Advanced Options by clicking +. The Select Action(s) dialog box provides the names and brief description of actions. Refer to Actions for the complete list of supported actions.

   2. Select the desired actions.

      Note

      • For a data transformation policy, the action key_op is selected automatically.
      • If you select key_op, then you must add a data transformation rule.

   3. Click Select. The selected actions appear in the Action field.

6. Select an Effect. Effect is the action that occurs when the attempted access matches all the criteria in the rule. This is a mandatory field. The default action is Deny.

   1. Click Select next to the Effect field. The Select Effect dialog box displays the available Effect Permissions and Effect Options.

   2. From the Effect Permissions list, select a permission. An effect must have a permission. The available options are:

      • Deny: Denies the access attempts to a resource. For example, you can specify an effect that denies any attempts to access a resource.
      • Permit: Allows the access attempt to a resource. For example, you can specify an effect that allows writing to a resource.

   3. From the Effect Options list, select appropriate options. The available options are:

      • ApplyKey: Applies an encryption key to data in a GuardPoint. When applied, data copied to the GuardPoint is encrypted with the key specified on the Create Key Rule screen and data that is accessed in the GuardPoint is decrypted using the same key. It allows the access attempt to the resource. For example, you can specify an effect that allows writing to a directory.

        Note

        If you select ApplyKey, you must also specify the key rules to apply for encrypting and decrypting the resources. Refer to Step 3: Add Key Rules for details.

      • Audit: Creates a message log entry for each qualifying event. It records what, when, and who is accessing the information.

   4. Click Select. The selected effects appear in the Effect field.

7. (Optional, applicable to Standard and LDT policies) Specify whether to Allow Browsing the directories under the GuardPoint down to the resources in the rule.

   By default, the Allow Browsing toggle is on. Users that match the criteria set by the security rule can access the directories between the GuardPoint and the resource. If you define a resource, then that resource should exist in the GuardPoint. The files in these directories can be listed like any file in a browser, but they cannot be modified, copied, or deleted.

   To prevent users from browsing the directories under the GuardPoint, turn off the Allow Browsing toggle.

8. Click Add. The newly created security rule appears in the list of security rules.

   Similarly, you can add multiple security rules to the policy by clicking Create Security Rule. To delete a security rule, click Delete next to the rule.

   Note

   A security rule with the ApplyKey Effect must be supported by at least one key rule. Refer to Step 3: Add Key Rules.

9. Click Next. The Key Rules screen is displayed.

Step 3: Add Key Rules

If you added a security rule with the Effect ApplyKey on the Security Rule screen, then you must add at least one key rule.

To add a key rule:

1. Click Create Key Rule. The Create Key Rule dialog box is displayed.

2. (Optional, applicable to Standard and LDT policies) Select a Resource Set.

   1. Click Select next to the Resource Set field. The list of available resource sets is displayed.

      Optionally, you can add a new resource set by clicking Create Resource Set. The newly created resource set will appear in the resource sets list.

   2. Select a resource set.

   3. Click Select. The selected resource set appears in the Resource Set field.

3. Select a Key Name. This is a mandatory field. For LDT and Data Transformation policies, the field name is Current Key Name instead of Key Name.

   1. Click Select next to the field. The list of available keys is displayed.

      Optionally, you can create a new key by clicking Create a New Key. Optionally, specify a Name for the key and click Create. The newly created key will appear in the keys list.

      Alternatively, encryption keys for CTE can be created on the Keys page of the Keys & Access Management application. Refer to Creating a New Key for details.

   2. Select the desired key.

      Note

      The CTE keys must be:
      • AES128, AES-256, ARIA-128, or ARIA-256
      • Shared with the CTE Clients group
      • Set as exportable
      Only the clients that support the CBC CS1 encryption mode can have GuardPoints that use a policy with a CBC CS1 key.

   3. Click Select. The selected key appears in the Key Name / Current Key Name field.

      The next two steps are specific to LDT policies.

4. (Applicable to LDT policies) Select a Transformation Key Name. This is a mandatory field.

   1. Click Select next to the field. The list of available keys is displayed.

      Optionally, you can create a new key by clicking Create a New Key. Optionally, specify a Name for the key and click Create. The newly created key will appear in the keys list.

      Alternatively, encryption keys for CTE can be created on the Keys page of the Keys & Access Management application. Refer to Creating a New Key for details.

   2. Select the desired key.

      Note

      The CTE keys must be:
      • AES128, AES-256, ARIA-128, or ARIA-256
      • Shared with the CTE Clients group
      • Set as exportable
      Only the clients that support the CBC CS1 encryption mode can have GuardPoints that use a policy with a CBC CS1 key.

   3. Click Select. The selected key appears in the Transformation Key Name field.

5. Click Add. The newly created key rule appears in the list of key rules.

   Similarly, you can add multiple key rules to the policy by clicking Create Key Rule. To delete a key rule, click Delete next to the rule.

6. Click Next.

For Live Data Transformation, Cloud Object Storage, and In-place Data Transformation policies, the Confirmation screen is displayed. Verify policy details, as described in Step 5: Confirm Details.

For Standard policies, the following screen is displayed:

• Data Transformation: If you selected the Data Transformation check box on the General Info screen of the Create Policy wizard. Add data transformation rules, as described in Step 4: Add Data Transformation Rules.

• Confirmation: If you cleared the Data Transformation check box. Verify policy details, as described in Step 5: Confirm Details.

Step 4: Add Data Transformation Rules

This step is applicable to Standard policies if you selected the Data Transformation check box on the General Info screen of the Create Policy wizard.

1. Click Create Data Transformation Rule. The Create Data Transformation Rule dialog box is displayed.

2. (Optional) Select a Resource Set.

   1. Click Select next to the Resource Set field. The list of available resource sets is displayed.

      Optionally, you can add a new resource set by clicking Create Resource Set. The newly created resource set will appear in the resource sets list.

   2. Select a resource set.

   3. Click Select. The selected resource set appears in the Resource Set field.

3. Select the Transformation Key Name. This is a mandatory field.

   1. Click Select next to the Transformation Key Name field. The list of available keys is displayed.

      Optionally, you can create a new key by clicking Create a New Key. Optionally, specify a Name for the key and click Create. The newly created key will appear in the keys list.

      Alternatively, encryption keys for CTE can be created on the Keys page of the Keys & Access Management application. Refer to Creating a New Key for details.

   2. Select the desired key.

      Note

      The CTE keys must be:
      • AES128, AES-256, ARIA-128, or ARIA-256
      • Shared with the CTE Clients group
      • Set as exportable
      Only the clients that support the CBC CS1 encryption mode can have GuardPoints that use a policy with a CBC CS1 key.

   3. Click Select. The selected key appears in the Transformation Key field.

4. Click Add. The newly created data transformation rule appears in the list of rules.

   Similarly, you can add multiple rules to the policy by clicking Create Data Transformation Rule. To delete a rule, click Delete next to the rule.

5. Click Next. The Confirmation screen is displayed.

Step 5: Confirm Details

1. Verify the policy details. The Confirmation screen displays general information about the policy and details of the security and key rules added to the policy.

   If the details are incorrect or you want to modify them, click Back and update the details.

2. Click Save.

The newly created policy appears in the policies list on the Policies page. Similarly, add as many policies as required. A sample list of policies is shown below:

Creating a New Key

When creating a key rule for a policy, you can either select an existing key or create a new key. The list of available keys is displayed on the Select Key dialog box. The new keys that you create on this dialog box appear under the keys list.

Alternatively, encryption keys for CTE can be created on the Keys page of the Keys & Access Management application, as described below.

To create a new key:

1. Open the Keys & Access Management application.

2. On the Keys page, click Create a New Key.

3. Specify the Key Name.

4. Select the Algorithm from the drop-down list. The default algorithm is AES. CTE supports AES and ARIA algorithms.

5. Select the key Size from the drop-down list. The default size is 256.

6. Under the Key Metadata section, type CTE in the Groups for Key sharing box to filter the groups. The CTE Admins and CTE Users groups are displayed.

   

7. Click Add next to the CTE Clients group.

8. Select the CTE Key Properties check box. The following fields appear:

   

   • CTE Versioned: Specify whether the key is versioned. By default, the key is set as versioned.

     • For Standard and COS policies, clear the CTE Versioned check box. This makes sure that the is displayed in the keys list when you add the key rule to the policy.

     • For LDT policies, make sure that the CTE Versioned check box is selected.

   • Persistent on Client: Specify whether the key is stored in persistent memory on the client.

     • When the check box is selected, the key is downloaded and stored (in an encrypted form) in persistent memory on the client.

     • When the check box is left clear, the key is downloaded to non-persistent memory on the client. Every time the key is needed, the client retrieves it from the CipherTrust Manager. This is the default setting.

   • Encryption Mode: Encryption mode of the key. The options are:

     • CBC

     • CBC CS1

     • XTS

   Encryption using the XTS and CBC CS1 keys is known as enhanced encryption. Refer to the CTE Agent Advanced Configuration and Integration Guide specific to your platform for details.

9. Scroll down to the Key Behaviors section.

10. Clear Prevent this key from being exported. This makes sure that the is displayed in the keys list when you add the key rule to the policy.

    

11. Click Create.

The newly created key appears in the keys list.