Masked Key Generation Using Multiple Hash Functions for Secure Slices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional RAID systems face issues with effectiveness, efficiency, and security, particularly as the number of disks increases, leading to higher maintenance costs and risks of data loss due to disk failures, unauthorized access, and vulnerability to natural disasters.
Innovation Solution
A dispersed storage network (DSN) utilizing dispersed storage units located at different geographical sites, with a managing unit and integrity processing unit for error encoding and decoding data, allowing for secure and efficient storage and retrieval of data without the need for redundant copies, using Cauchy Reed-Solomon encoding and decoding processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple copies of data are stored in RAID systems to reduce data loss risk, then reliability is improved, but security deteriorates due to increased unauthorized access risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into multiple encoded slices distributed across different storage units. Instead of storing complete redundant copies, the data is divided and encoded such that a threshold number of slices are needed to reconstruct the original data. This segmentation approach provides reliability through distribution while enhancing security, as unauthorized access to individual slices does not compromise the entire dataset.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces error correction codes and encoding mechanisms as intermediaries between the original data and stored representations. These intermediaries transform the data into an encoded form that requires specific decoding operations to retrieve the original information, thereby protecting against both data loss and unauthorized access while maintaining reliability.
2Productivity
If more disks are added to RAID array to increase storage capacity, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to higher disk failure probability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides data into multiple encoded slices that can be distributed across numerous storage units. This segmentation allows the system to scale storage capacity by adding more units while maintaining reliability, as the encoded distribution ensures that data can be recovered even if some units fail, without requiring complete redundancy of entire data copies.
3Reliability
If data is copied to multiple RAID devices to prevent data loss, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to maintenance and management overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-healing capabilities through error correction codes that automatically detect and correct data inconsistencies without manual intervention. The system can autonomously recover from disk failures by reconstructing data from remaining slices using the encoding scheme, reducing maintenance overhead and complexity while maintaining high reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus for efficiently storing and accessing secure data are disclosed. The method of storing includes encrypting data utilizing an encryption key to produce encrypted data, performing deterministic functions on the encrypted data to produce deterministic function values, masking the encryption key utilizing the deterministic function values to produce masked keys and combining the encrypted data and the masked keys to produce a secure package. The method of accessing includes de-combining a secure package to reproduce encrypted data and masked keys, selecting a deterministic function, performing the selected deterministic function on the reproduced encrypted data to reproduce a deterministic function value, de-masking a corresponding masked key utilizing the reproduced deterministic function value to reproduce an encryption key, and decrypting the reproduced encrypted data utilizing the reproduced encryption key to reproduce data.