A new key management scheme for distributed encrypted storage systems

Abstract

Data on a storage device are easier targets for malicious attackers. Storing data in an encrypted form is an effective way to improve data security. In an encrypted storage system, key management is one of the most challenging tasks. In this paper, we propose a new key management scheme for distributed encrypted storage that has various salient features. First, in the proposed scheme, encryption keys are not directly known to users. Due to this property, the security of the encrypted data is not deteriorated though some users that have shared the data lose the access right. Second, in the proposed scheme, even if some components of the system are attacked, the security of the system is still guaranteed. Third, the system provides high availability by exploiting the secret sharing scheme. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.