Decryption Key Splitting for Secure Data Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face challenges in controlling access to their private data stored remotely, as they need to balance convenience with security, especially when dealing with untrusted or unknown parties handling their data, and existing methods do not effectively manage data access based on individual trust and public reputation.
Innovation Solution
A system that generates a complete decryption key and divides it into partial keys, allowing controlled delivery based on specified criteria, using reputation centers to evaluate trustworthiness and manage access, with proxy re-encryption enabling secure data access without revealing plaintext information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users store data remotely and share it with service providers, then data accessibility and service convenience are improved, but data security and privacy protection deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The decryption key is divided into multiple partial keys distributed to different service providers. No single provider possesses the complete key, preventing any one entity from accessing the plaintext data while still enabling collaborative decryption when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
A key management system acts as an intermediary between users and service providers, controlling key distribution and access authorization. This mediator ensures that data access is granted only to authorized parties while maintaining security.
2Reliability
If users control access to private data through strict security measures, then data privacy is improved, but data sharing convenience and service quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts access control based on user authorization. Users can grant or revoke access rights to specific service providers at any time, allowing flexible control over data sharing while maintaining security. The key distribution and decryption permissions are not static but can be modified according to changing trust relationships.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and techniques for controlling access to data are described. Data is delivered to a repository in such a way that access to the data can be controlled, for example, by encrypting the data before delivery. The power to provide a requester with the ability to gain access to the data is divided, so that multiple entities can provide the requester with a portion of the information needed to gain access to the data. The portions of the information may be partial keys that can be assembled into a complete key. The requester can gain access to the data only if it receives all portions of the information needed to gain access to the data, and different criteria may be used to decide whether or not to provide each portion of the information to the requester.