Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The key hadn't changed in months - at least 6 months by the time I found it. I was told this same key would be used to encrypt web session data in a cookie. There were more than a dozen people who I knew had access to the key, and another 5 had come and gone (and had had access to the same key) in the previous 6 months. What's so wrong with any of this? Software requires operators and developers. If you can't trust…
> What's so wrong with any of this? A very basic principle of security is the principle of least authority. To implement that, you don't use one key for many different purposes over a long period of time and give it to anyone who needs it. You use different keys for different purposes, and replace the keys periodically to help ensure that they're only available to a limited group. Another way to answer your question…
Re: I was a senior VP of tech at Starwood: here’s my take on the guest data breach
#61I understand no one having access to the key, but if data is already encrypted using this key and you want to rotate to a new key, how do you decrypt the old data? re-encrypt all old data with the new key?