Methods and computer program products for encryption key generation and management

Abstract

The described embodiments relate to encryption methods and computer program products. An encryption application is used to determine a keystore seed with a seed bit set having seed bits in an orderedsequence. A plurality of key derivation sets are determined and a selected key derivation set is selected randomly. A key bit sequence is generated from the seed bit set using the selected key derivation set. An encryption key is generated using the key bit sequence, and corresponding keying information is determined from the selected key derivation set such that the latter is also derivable fromthe former. The keying information discloses zero information about the encryption key absent knowledge of the keystore seed. Plain text data is encrypted using the encryption key to generate cipher text data, and the keying information is stored with the cipher text data. The encryption key may then be deleted.

Description

[0001] related application [0002] This application claims the priority of the PCT patent application titled "METHODS, SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING ENCRYPTION ON APLURALITY OF DEVICES" submitted on June 12, 2015 with the application number PCT / CA2015 / 050543 and the application number is 14 / 737,940, priority of U.S. patent application entitled "METHODS, SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDINGENCRYPTION ON A PLURAL OF DEVICES," filed June 12, 2015. The entire contents of PCT Patent Application No. PCT / CA2015 / 050543 and US Patent Application No. 14 / 737,940 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. technical field [0003] Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to data protection and encryption, and more particularly to methods and computer program products for generating and managing encryption keys. Background technique [0004] As people rely more and more on computing and Internet technology, data security is m...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Since users have difficulty coming up with and remembering strong random passwords, they tend to choose weaker passwords, and the resulting encryption is often weak

As a result, files encrypted with standalone tools may still be vulnerable to some sophisticated attacks

Also, if the password is forgotten or lost, it may be difficult or impossible to recover the original plaintext file from the encrypted file

This effectively results in permanent data loss

Finally, when files are encrypted using standalone tools, sharing encrypted files between a group of people can be tedious and often requires the use of side channels to exchange passwords

[0010] In large-scale information systems, key management including key generation, key exchange, and secret maintenance of keys becomes more difficult

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