The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published Technology Risk Management (TRM) Guidelines to help financial firms establish sound technology risk management, strengthen system security, and safeguard sensitive data and transactions.

The TRM contains statements of industry best practices that financial institutions conducting business in Singapore are expected to adopt. The MAS makes clear that, while the TRM requirements are not legally binding, they will be a benchmark the MAS uses in assessing the risk of financial institutions.

• 8.4.4 The FI should encrypt backup tapes and disks, including USB disks, containing sensitive or confidential information before they are transported offsite for storage.
• 9.1.6 Confidential information stored on IT systems, servers and databases should be encrypted and protected through strong access controls, bearing in mind the principle of “least privilege”.
• 11.0.1.c Access control principle – The FI should only grant access rights and system privileges based on job responsibility and the necessity to have them to fulfill one's duties. The FI should check that no person by virtue of rank or position should have any intrinsic right to access confidential data, applications, system resources or facilities.
• 11.1.1 The FI should only grant user access to IT systems and networks on a need-to-use basis and within the period when the access is required. The FI should ensure that the resource owner duly authorises and approves all requests to access IT resources.
• 11.2 Privileged Access Management.
• 11.2.3.d. Grant privileged access on a “need-to-have” basis.
• 11.2.3.e. Maintain audit logging of system activities performed by privileged users.
• 11.2.3.f. Disallow privileged users from accessing systems logs in which their activities are being captured.
• 13 payment card security (automated teller machines, credit and debit cards).

The Vormetric Data Security Manager from Thales eSecurity offers centralized management of keys and policies for the entire suite of products available within the Vormetric Data Security Platform. The product is available as a physical or virtual appliance.

Vormetric Transparent Encryption from Thales eSecurity leverages an agent that runs in the file system to provide high-performance encryption and least-privileged access controls for files, directories, and volumes. Vormetric Transparent Encryption supports both structured databases and unstructured files.

Vormetric Application Encryption from Thales eSecurity employs standards-based APIs to simplify the process of doing column-level encryption in applications.

With Vormetric Key Management from Thales eSecurity, administrators can centrally manage keys for Vormetric products, Oracle TDE, Microsoft TDE, and more. In addition, the product securely stores certificates and offers support for the Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP).

Vormetric Security Intelligence can deliver granular file access logs to popular security information and event management (SIEM) systems and be used to support audits.

Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) from Thales eSecurity provide a hardened, tamper-resistant environment for secure cryptographic processing, key protection, and key management. With these devices organizations can deploy high assurance security solutions that satisfy widely established and emerging standards of due care for cryptographic systems and practices—while also maintaining high operational efficiency.