R&S®Trusted Gate von Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity

Short Summary

Cloud services such as Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint enable fast, flexible collaboration and secure information exchange, but they also amplify security and compliance challenges as organizations move toward hybrid IT models spanning on-premises systems, multiple clouds, and external partners. As business boundaries dissolve and mobile, partner-based collaboration increases, traditional perimeter-focused cybersecurity (protecting networks, endpoints, and infrastructure) is no longer sufficient on its own. The emphasis shifts to protecting data itself across its full lifecycle and across environments that are effectively “perimeter-less.”

A modern data-centric security approach focuses on identifying and discovering sensitive information, classifying it (from public to regulated), protecting it through lifecycle controls (encryption, hashing, access controls), applying data loss prevention techniques, and continuously monitoring and auditing access to demonstrate compliance to regulators and internal governance bodies. The goal is consistent control of sensitive data across on-premises, cloud, multi-cloud, and third-party sharing scenarios, while keeping usability high through transparent enforcement.

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity positions R&S Trusted Gate as a flagship data-centric security product designed to secure collaboration platforms (especially Office 365 and SharePoint) and public cloud services (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) without disrupting user workflows. The product intercepts access to platform storage, leaving only “stub” files with limited metadata in the native cloud repository. The actual document payload is encrypted, fragmented into chunks, and stored across configurable software-defined storage backends, potentially spanning regions and providers. Security control remains with the organization via key management, policy enforcement, access control, and centralized administration. Notable strengths include full-text search over encrypted documents and flexible deployment options (reverse proxy, add-in, APIs), alongside the continued relevance of layered security with traditional controls.

Interesting Facts

• Office 365 and SharePoint are widely used for office collaboration, document work, and secure information exchange with partners.
• Many organizations operate hybrid IT environments with services split across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments.
• Traditional security commonly protects data in motion (e.g., HTTPS) and data at rest (e.g., file system-based encryption).
• Data-centric security includes identifying sensitive data, classifying it, protecting it with lifecycle controls, applying DLP, and monitoring/auditing access.
• Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity GmbH was established as a specialized subsidiary in 2016 after strategic acquisitions.
• R&S Trusted Gate intercepts communication with platform storage and applies encryption and partitioning.
• SharePoint or Office 365 can store only stub files containing limited metadata, not the actual document content.
• Encrypted payloads are cut into chunks and stored across one or more software-defined storage systems, including on-premises or cloud storage.
• R&S Trusted Gate supports full-text search in encrypted documents using a dedicated search engine that creates a secure index.
• The product can be deployed as a reverse proxy or via an add-in, and storage backends can be adjusted at runtime.

Notable Quotes

• “The question of how to secure data in an increasingly perimeter-less IT between on-premises environments, the cloud and anywhere in between is getting more and more important.”
• “Modern, data-centric security approaches move their focus away from infrastructure and network boundaries and look rather at the transmitted payload.”
• “Above all, ease of use and a transparent application of the above given processes are of high importance to provide security and efficiently enable business with all involved parties.”
• “Traditional security mechanisms (e.g. firewalls or endpoint security) continue to represent an initial layer of protection that must first be overcome and protect individual aspects and security dimensions of hybrid environments.”
• “End users (employees, partners, communication partners of all kinds) continue to interact with the native cloud or collaboration platform without any friction.”
• “The actual cloud platform will only work with a stub version of the actual file… a ‘virtual file’ containing a rather limited set of meta data, but no actual document content.”
• “Cutting up encrypted content in slices or chunks finally means, that even compromising a single SDS would not lead to a data breach.”
• “This allows to interact transparently and securely even with large amounts of data.”
• “R&S®Trusted Gate acknowledges existing document classifications and treats and encrypts documents accordingly during upload already.”
• “We recommend including R&S®Trusted Gate into the evaluation process when designing and implementing reliable protection, access control and governance for sensitive data in public clouds and collaboration environments like Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.”