Discover the optimal solution for securely backing up MFA seeds in a central, offline location with minimal management overhead. Expert analysis for CompTIA CAS-004 exam preparation.
Table of Contents
Question
Which of the following provides the best solution for organizations that want to securely back up the MFA seeds for its employees in a central, offline location with minimal management overhead?
A. Key escrow service
B. Secrets management
C. Encrypted database
D. Hardware security module
Answer
The best solution for organizations that want to securely back up the MFA seeds for its employees in a central, offline location with minimal management overhead is:
B. Secrets management
Explanation
Secrets management is the most appropriate solution for securely backing up MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) seeds in a central, offline location while minimizing management overhead. Here’s why:
- Purpose: Secrets management systems are specifically designed to securely store, manage, and control access to sensitive information, including cryptographic keys, passwords, API keys, and MFA seeds.
- Centralization: These systems provide a centralized repository for storing sensitive data, making it easier to manage and audit access to MFA seeds across an organization.
- Offline storage: Many secrets management solutions offer offline storage capabilities, allowing organizations to keep backups in a secure, air-gapped environment.
- Minimal management overhead: Secrets management systems are built to automate many aspects of secure storage and retrieval, reducing the manual effort required to manage sensitive information.
- Access control: These systems typically offer granular access controls, allowing organizations to restrict and monitor who can access the MFA seeds.
- Encryption: Secrets management solutions use strong encryption to protect stored data at rest and in transit.
- Auditing and logging: They provide comprehensive audit trails and logging capabilities, which are crucial for compliance and security monitoring.
- Rotation and lifecycle management: Many secrets management systems offer features for automatically rotating secrets and managing their lifecycle, which can be beneficial for long-term MFA seed management.
While the other options have merits, they are less suitable for this specific scenario:
A. Key escrow service: Typically used for key recovery in encryption systems, not ideal for MFA seed management.
C. Encrypted database: While it can provide secure storage, it may require more management overhead and lack specific features for secrets management.
D. Hardware security module (HSM): Primarily used for cryptographic operations and key storage, an HSM may be overkill and less flexible for managing MFA seeds across an organization.
In conclusion, secrets management provides the best balance of security, centralization, offline storage capability, and minimal management overhead for backing up MFA seeds in an organizational context.
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