Dispersed Data Storage Matrix Slicing for Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data storage systems face reliability and security challenges as they often store entire digital files in a single location, making them vulnerable to malfunctions, natural disasters, and malicious access, while backup solutions exacerbate security issues and traditional encryption methods can be compromised.
Innovation Solution
A secure dispersed data storage system is implemented using a multi-node storage system where a data segment is arranged in a matrix and sliced into non-consecutive data slices, with optional encryption and all-or-nothing transformations, ensuring that no usable information can be recovered unless a threshold number of slices are compromised.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If data is stored in a single location, then storage simplicity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to vulnerability to malfunction, natural disasters, and malicious acts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the data into multiple segments and stores them across different locations using an information dispersal algorithm. This segmentation allows the system to achieve both storage simplicity and improved reliability, as the data can be reconstructed from a sufficient number of segments even if some storage locations fail or are compromised.
2Reliability
If backup copies are created and stored in separate locations, then reliability is improved, but security deteriorates as hackers have more targets to compromise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by ensuring that each individual storage location contains only a fragment of the data that is useless on its own. The data is encoded such that compromising any single location reveals no meaningful information, while still maintaining reliability through distributed storage. This resolves the contradiction by making each location both reliable for storage and secure against compromise.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If encryption is applied to protect data, then security is improved, but vulnerability to key compromise deteriorates as a single compromised key exposes all data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the encryption key into multiple parts and distributes them across different storage locations. This allows the system to maintain strong encryption security while improving security resilience, as compromising a single location does not reveal the complete key or the data. The information dispersal algorithm ensures that a sufficient number of key segments are required to reconstruct the original data.
4Reliability
If data is divided into multiple stripes using RAID, then reliability and performance are improved, but security deteriorates as consecutive data segments are stored on separate drives
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional RAID approach by using an information dispersal algorithm that deliberately avoids storing consecutive data segments together. Instead of striping data sequentially across drives, the system scatters data segments throughout the storage network in a non-sequential pattern, making it significantly harder for attackers to compromise multiple segments simultaneously while maintaining the reliability benefits of distributed storage.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of securely storing data to a dispersed data storage system is disclosed. A data segment is arranged along the columns or rows of an appropriately sized matrix. Data slices are then created based on either the columns or the rows so that no consecutive data is stored in a data slice. Each data slice is then stored in a separate storage node.