Overview
KakaoCloud Key Management Service (KMS) securely creates, stores, manages, and controls encryption keys used for data encryption, decryption, and digital signatures.
With KMS, developers don’t need to hardcode or manage encryption keys directly in their application code. Instead, they can easily encrypt and decrypt data through API calls. This reduces security complexity while improving development productivity.
- To use KMS for the first time, click [Get started] on the service page.
- To start the service, you need the KMS Manager role or higher.
Purpose and use cases
KMS is used to protect all types of sensitive data stored or processed in a cloud environment.
It is mainly used to encrypt personal information in databases, files stored in storage, and secret values inside applications. This ensures that even if data is leaked, the information remains secure, and it helps meet strict compliance and regulatory requirements.
Features
Centralized key management
You can generate, store, rotate, and retire all encryption keys used across multiple services and applications in a single place. This significantly reduces security risks and management costs caused by distributed key management.
Strong security and reliability
All keys are securely protected in hardware security module (HSM) clusters, and every operation using keys is logged in detail. Users cannot directly access the key material itself; encryption and decryption operations are only possible via API, fundamentally preventing key leakage.
Granular access control
You can configure fine-grained permission policies per user and role for each key. For example, grant encryption/decryption permissions to certain users while allowing only administrators to create, rotate, and delete keys. This ensures effective enforcement of the principle of least privilege.
Audit and compliance support
All key usage activity—including who used which key and when—is logged and tracked in the Cloud Trail service. These logs can be used to strengthen internal security policies and provide evidence for meeting various compliance requirements.
Getting started
For instructions on using KMS, see How-to Guides. If you are new to KakaoCloud, start with Getting started.