First HSM for SQL Server 2008 released!

Today, January 15th 2009, Safenet announced its release of Luna SA HSM support for SQL Server 2008 and became the first EKM provider available in the market!

 SQL Server 2008 introduced Extensible Key Management (EKM) for managing keys outside of SQL Server. Traditionally, all Symmetric and Asymmetric Keys used by SQL Server reside in the database itself, however EKM allows key creation, storage, encryption and decryption to be done outside the database using an HSM. To use this feature HSM vendors (also called EKM providers) have to write a module which implements certain interfaces that SQL Server uses to for key management and crypto operations. Key creation and management DDL supports key creation using a EKM providers. With Safenet’s announcement today, they have become the first HSM to support SQL Server 2008’s Extensible Key Management.

Congratulations to Safenet!