Virtru launches zero-trust key management for entire Google ecosystem

Virtru, a well-known name in data encryption and privacy, has launched an external zero-trust key-management solution expressly for admins of the Google Cloud Platform (GCPs).

Virtru’s cloud-based software protects data throughout its lifecycle as it travels through email and file-sharing platforms, including SaaS solutions, cloud environments, and a diverse range of file ecosystems. It is designed to smooth out a normally thorny and painstaking routine for security admins.

Virtru enables admins to manage encryption keys separately from data. This allows them to mitigate breaches, prevent unauthorized access, and ensure no third party can access the data — Google and Virtru included — without disturbing data stores. Users also have choices on how they want to host their encryption keys: on-premises, in a private cloud, fully hosted, or as optional HSM integrations.

Advantages of managing encryption keys separately from data

With the help of the external key-management solution, enterprises can securely manage their encryption keys independently of their data across Google Workspaces, GCPs, and other cloud applications. The solution safeguards the information in data lakes, databases, and other various containers that pass through Google’s cloud computing services and AI capabilities.

With Virtru, all data moving across the Google ecosystem has a single global framework and policy language, irrespective of where the data source is generated. It could be created by users, devices, or systems.

Virtru’s cofounder and CEO John Ackerly said that this solution directly addresses a widespread lack of security in “leveraging big-data cloud computing.”

Zero-trust security for Google portfolio

The zero-trust data standard of the solution means that Google users can now optimize the GCP by extending data sovereignty from collaboration suites to cloud applications, as use cases dictate.

“Virtru is now the only Google partner bringing data security to the entire Google portfolio, including key management, supporting regulations like ITAR in the U.S. and Schrems II in the EU,” Ackerly said in a media advisory.

Although Virtru has been a longstanding partner of Google for data protection and Google-recommended encryption key management, the new solution extends its jurisdiction to Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Virtru leverages the open Trusted Data Format (TDF), a well-known encryption technology that is also used by the U.S. National Security Agency, to build these solutions.

Developers will likely be pleased to know that the solution also has integration compatibility with Google Cloud Platform’s Kubernetes Engine, Secret Engine, Compute Engine, BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud SQL, and Pub/Sub. Virtru’s Data Protection Gateway, working in conjunction with Google Cloud EKM, is also compatible with enterprise applications like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Looker.

The company said its service is used to secure more than 7,000 customers and enhances collaboration capabilities for a network of more than 260,000 domains. The average number of emails and files that draw protection from Virtru’s platform exceeds an average of 2 million per day.

Virtru’s client base includes companies and institutions such as Next Insurance, DNA Worldwide, the state of Maryland, and the Ivy League institution, Brown University.