British data security software company Cossack Labs updated its flagship open-source product Acra database security suite to version 0.90.0 and made many of its core security features previously available only for enterprise customers free in Acra Community Edition.
Acra’s features enable swift implementation of application-level encryption in modern cloud applications, saving development costs and allowing tighter grip on sensitive data lifecycle. “Following our mission to empower developers to build secure products of any scale and in any market, we chose to open-source all fundamental controls, for years available only to commercial customers,” said Eugene Pilyankevich, CTO of Cossack Labs.
Searchable Encryption
Cossack Labs, which began operations in 2014 as a cryptographic R&D lab, built an ecosystem of data security products and tools, which are typically consumed in industries and verticals where data protection is a hard requirement—from classic fintech and healthcare to top traded cryptocurrencies, AI-based software products, and country-wide power grid infrastructure. Acra’s technology highlights include searchable encryption: providing a way to keep data encrypted and still be able to securely search over it, without constraining the application architecture, made available in the open-source 0.90.0 release.
Data masking and tokenisation give additional possibilities to keep data at hand but well-hidden from unauthorised access. A built-in data leakage prevention system allows to detect unauthorised behaviour and effectively respond to it. Acra is built to secure sensitive data inside modern distributed apps, clouds and databases, making the life of solution architects and operations teams easier.
Industry watchers opine that Acra unifies security control set around sensitive data, combining 9 strong data security controls on one choke point to data access: application-level encryption, searchable encryption, data masking, data tokenization, connections’ authentication, data leakage prevention, cryptographically signed audit logs, database request firewall, and security events automation.
Acra Community Edition can be downloaded from the GitHub repository or Digital Ocean marketplace, featuring many “try without coding” engineering examples and preconfigured infrastructures.
