Intelligent Backup Device Hashing Duplicate Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data backup systems face challenges in efficiently managing and securing encrypted data, particularly in eliminating redundancy and ensuring secure storage and recovery of files across different systems and networks, while also being user-friendly and resistant to data loss or corruption.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize hashing techniques combined with encryption and a new file header structure to securely manage and backup data, allowing for the elimination of redundant copies, secure storage of encrypted data, and easy recovery to specific dates or revisions, using symmetric and asymmetric encryption, and public key cryptography for user access control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If encryption is used to secure data in backup systems, then data security is improved, but redundancy elimination becomes difficult because encrypted data with different keys cannot be identified as duplicates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by calculating and storing hash values of encrypted data blocks before backup operations. This allows the system to identify duplicate encrypted blocks across different encryption keys by comparing their hash values, enabling redundancy elimination to occur prior to the actual backup process. The hash function processes the encrypted data without requiring decryption, maintaining security while enabling duplicate detection.
2Ease of operation
If full backup copies are stored for each version of files, then data recovery to specific revisions is enabled, but storage space consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing files into fixed-size blocks and processing each block independently. Instead of storing complete file versions, the system segments files into blocks, hashes each block, and stores only the unique blocks. This allows efficient versioning where only changed blocks between versions need to be stored, dramatically reducing storage requirements while maintaining full recovery capability through block-level reconstruction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by transforming the representation of data from storing complete file copies to storing hash values of data blocks. This parameter transformation enables the system to identify and eliminate duplicates efficiently, while the original data can be reconstructed from the unique blocks. The hash function serves as a parameter change that compresses large amounts of data into compact identifiers for comparison purposes.
3Loss of substance
If hashing techniques are applied to encrypted data for redundancy elimination, then storage efficiency is improved, but verification of data integrity becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the intermediary principle by introducing hash functions as a mediator between encrypted data and the redundancy elimination process. The hash function acts as an intermediary that transforms encrypted data into a comparable format without requiring decryption. This intermediary layer simplifies the verification process by providing deterministic hash values that can be compared directly, making the integrity verification straightforward despite the complexity of working with encrypted data.
Data Source
AI summary
A data storage and data backup device that offers automatic reduction of duplicate data storage, and that easily can be connected to computing devices, computing systems and networks of computing devices. The device offers high protection against destruction or modification of already stored data, and requires flipping a physical switch and possibly require user authentication in order for the protection to be temporarily bypassed. Several connection types of the device to the computer systems are supported such as wired, wireless like Bluetooth or WI-FI, but not limited to those.