CTE Terminology
The guide uses the following terminology:
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| CTE | CipherTrust Transparent Encryption is a suite of products that allow you to encrypt and guard your data. The main software component of CTE is the CTE Agent, which must be installed on every host whose devices you want to protect. Note: This suite was originally called Vormetric Transparent Encryption (VTE), and some of the names in the suite still use "Vormetric". For example, the default installation directory is /opt/vormetric/DataSecurityExpert/agent/ for Linux and AIX, and C:\Program Files\Vormetric\DataSecurityExpert\agent\ for Windows. |
| CTE Agent | The software that you install on a physical or virtual machine in order to encrypt and protect the data on that machine. After you have installed the CTE Agent on the machine, you can use CTE to protect any number of devices or directories on that machine. |
| key manager | An appliance that stores and manages data encryption keys, data access policies, administrative domains, and administrator profiles. Thales offers CipherTrust Manager - a key manager for use with CTE. |
| host / client | In this documentation, host and client are used interchangeably to refer to the physical or virtual machine on which the CTE Agent is installed. |
| GuardPoint | A device or directory to which a CTE data protection and encryption policy has been applied. CTE will control access to, and monitor changes in, this device and directory, encrypting new or changed information as needed. |
CTE Components
The CTE solution consists of two parts:
-
The CTE Agent software that resides on each protected virtual or physical machine (host). The CTE Agent performs the required data encryption and enforces the access policies sent to it by the key manager. The communication between the CTE Agent and the key manager is encrypted and secure.
After the CTE Agent has encrypted a device on a host, that device is called a GuardPoint. You can use CTE to create GuardPoints on servers on-site, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both.
-
A key manager that stores and manages data encryption keys, data access policies, administrative domains, and administrator profiles. After you install the CTE Agent on a host and register it with a key manager, you can use the key manager to specify which devices on the host that you want to protect, what encryption keys are used to protect those devices, and what access policies are enforced on those devices.
Thales offers CipherTrust Manager, next generation key manager that supports most CTE for Linux and Windows features, most CTE features on Linux and Windows, and all CTE features on AIX.
CipherTrust Manager can be set up as either a security-hardened physical appliance or a virtual appliance. It provides access to the protected hosts though a browser-based, graphical user interface as well as an API and a CLI.
CipherTrust Manager versions support all CTE for Linux features except for the following:
- Container Security
Support for these features will be included in future releases of the CipherTrust Manager.
CipherTrust Manager versions 2.7 and higher support all CTE for Windows features except for the following:
