Encrypted Document Storage via Third-Party Aggregator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Businesses face challenges in retaining customer documents securely after a predetermined time, as they must discard documents to comply with regulations or save storage space, leading to unavailability for customers who request access later.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where institutions encrypt documents with a key and provide it to users, allowing the documents to be stored securely by an aggregator without the institution's access, enabling users to decrypt them independently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If the business discards the document after the retention period to save storage space or comply with regulations, then storage space is recovered and regulatory compliance is achieved, but the document becomes unavailable to the customer when requested
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the document management process into two independent components: the institution retains only metadata and encryption keys while the actual encrypted documents are transferred to a third-party aggregator. This segmentation allows the institution to comply with retention policies by maintaining minimal document references while the aggregator preserves the full encrypted documents indefinitely, eliminating the contradiction between storage space recovery and document availability.
Solution Approach 2:
A third-party aggregator acts as an intermediary between the institution and the document storage function. The aggregator receives encrypted documents from the institution and maintains them in a secure repository, allowing the institution to discard local copies while customers can still access documents through the aggregator using their original credentials, thus resolving the conflict between storage management and document accessibility.
2Loss of information
If the business retains encrypted documents indefinitely to ensure customer access, then document availability is maintained, but storage costs increase and regulatory compliance becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the document storage function from the institution's infrastructure and places it with a specialized third-party aggregator. The institution keeps only the essential elements (metadata, encryption keys, access control) while the aggregator handles the bulk encrypted document storage. This extraction allows the institution to avoid long-term storage costs and regulatory burden while ensuring document availability through the aggregator's dedicated repository.
Solution Approach 2:
The institution creates an encrypted copy of documents and transfers them to the aggregator, while maintaining the ability to provide access through cryptographic keys. The original encrypted documents remain accessible to customers via the aggregator, allowing the institution to effectively 'copy' the storage function elsewhere without losing document accessibility, thereby reducing local storage requirements while maintaining availability.
3Ease of operation
If the institution system maintains access to decrypted documents for customer service, then customer support capability is improved, but security risks increase and regulatory compliance becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of the institution decrypting and maintaining access to documents for customer service, the system inverts the approach: customers use their own cryptographic keys to decrypt documents directly from the encrypted storage at the aggregator. This inversion eliminates the security risk and compliance burden from the institution while maintaining full customer service capability, as customers can access and view their own documents independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables customers to perform self-service document access and decryption using their own credentials and cryptographic keys. The institution provides the infrastructure and key management, but customers independently decrypt and access their documents without requiring institutional intervention. This self-service model maintains customer service capability while eliminating security risks associated with institutional document decryption and access.
Data Source
AI summary
A user retains access to a document previously generated or received by an institution system and stored in encrypted form in storage of the institution system or another entity associated with the institution system. However, the institution system does not have access to the document (in readable form) after an expiration of an amount of time. The document is encrypted in such a manner that only the user can decrypt the document, but the institution system cannot decrypt it. In this manner, the institution system may meet business or regulatory requirements or policies directed to discarding (i.e., purging) the document after a predetermined amount of time, but can still provide secure storage of the document in encrypted form to the user independent of the business or regulatory requirements or policies that mandate purging the document.