Protocol based key management

A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable non-transitory storage medium including computer usable code for protocol based key management in a protocol based key management system, the computer usable code comprising:

• computer usable code for identifying a key management protocol associated with a key request, the key management protocol being one of a plurality of key management protocols supported by a key management system;
• computer usable code for selecting a first subset from a set of policies using the key management protocol;
• computer usable code for computing a set of permissions based on the first subset of policies, the set of permissions indicating whether the key request is permitted under the key management protocol, wherein the set of permissions in the protocol based key management system is computationally smaller than a possible set of permissions computable for the key request, and wherein the first subset of policies based on the key management protocol causes the set of permissions to be computed with a smaller computational cost than the possible set of permissions;
• and
• computer usable code for caching the set of permissions in a cache in a data storage device.

A protocol based key management system for protocol based key management, comprising:

• a storage device including a storage medium, wherein the storage device stores computer usable program code;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor executes the computer usable program code, and wherein the computer usable program code comprises:
• computer usable code for identifying a key management protocol associated with a key request, the key management protocol being one of a plurality of key management protocols supported by a key management system;
• computer usable code for selecting a first subset from a set of policies using the key management protocol;
• computer usable code for computing a set of permissions based on the first subset of policies, the set of permissions indicating whether the key request is permitted under the key management protocol, wherein the set of permissions in the protocol based key management system is computationally smaller than a possible set of permissions computable for the key request, and wherein the first subset of policies based on the key management protocol causes the set of permissions to be computed with a smaller computational cost than the possible set of permissions;
• and
• computer usable code for caching the set of permissions in a cache in a data storage device.