Using CA Tape Encryption in Your z/OS Environment › How FIPS Compliance Works

How FIPS Compliance Works

CA Tape Encryption supports Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance by letting you specify whether to apply these standards. Consider the following points for FIPS compliance:

• If your organization is required to apply these standards, specify the use of FIPS mode for all tape encryption.
• When you enable FIPS mode, you can use only encryption algorithms that meet FIPS 140-2 requirements.
• If you attempt to use an encryption algorithm that is not FIPS-compliant, the tape job abends.
• If you run in FIPS mode, it does not necessarily mean that all encryptions and decryptions are routed through FIPS-certified hardware.

Note: For more information about FIPS-certified hardware, see How Secure Key Processing Exploits FIPS 140-2 Certified PCI Cryptographic Coprocessors. For more information about using parmlib to specify FIPS mode, see the Configuration Guide.