Security of dispersion and all or nothing
recovery:
In cryptography, people speak of messages
as being either in plain text or encrypted. Either way, one message
is contained in one file.
With Pryvit, a message is dispersed across
anywhere from 2 to 16 files, each of which may be segmented if
it is large. Dispersion is intensified by scattering the component
files across different locations, on the Internet, on networked
computers, on hard drives, on alternate off-line media. In addition,
a reconstitution file is held separately from all the privacy
protected archive files.
Dispersion becomes a first line defense for
privacy. The lack of even one file is normally enough to block
illicit attempts to recover the original data. The defense is
especially strong if the reconstitution file is not available.
Magic of the Internet:
The Internet offers easy hiding combined
with easy access.
Prior to large scale acceptance of the Internet,
a dispersion technique would have worked. But it would have been
far more labor intensive, requiring the user to arrange for movement
of the privacy protected archive files to alternative storage
for protection. The Internet does away with shuffling files to
and from storage locations. The Internet works together with random
fragment dispersion technology to enable new levels of convenience
in ensuring privacy and in retrieving data once again when it
is needed.
We have already touched on how Internet-based
random fragment dispersion introduces previously undreamed-of
capability for safely hiding bits and bytes.
The Internet also adds the special dimension
of Pryvit distribution -- immediate recovery of any kind of files
by selected authorized computers anywhere in the world.
A million little messages:
Pryvit generates, not a cryptographic message,
but a million little messages. It is privacy with almost no encryption.
(The small reconstitution file is the only part that gets encrypted.)
When you challenge assumptions, you create
opportunity for new ways of looking at things. Cryptography may
be ready for a paradigm shift, a whole new understanding of the
task of getting information from A to B without interception or
other malfeasance by a third party.
There is no immutable law received from on
high that says one message must be one file, or that one file
must contain one message. The moment we relax the assumption of
equivalence, startling possibilities open up. Think of a set of
Pryvit privacy protected archive files as a million little messages,
each with its own tiny key. Security actually improves as we shred
inputs from many large messages.
Random fragment distribution technology redefines
the field of cryptography by redefining what is a message.
Pryvit is a document delivery technology:
Here is a paradox: Pryvit / random fragment
distribution serves two seemingly opposite needs, privacy
of data, and publication of data. The Internet plays a
key role. That which is hidden on the Internet can be retrieved
from anywhere in the world. Pryvit enables the sender / publisher
to create additional reconstitution files, one for each computer
that is to be authorized to access the vulnerable data files.
These recipients cannot learn where the files are. They can neither
modify nor delete them; hence they cannot interfere with the rights
of other authorized recipients.
Pryvit distribution is of particular value
to organizations wishing to use Intranets as a secure means of
communication and file exchange.
Encryption enhancer:
Pryvit does not do away with the need for
strong encryption, for example, in banking, corporate strategy,
the military, and matters of national security. Pryvit is not
a substitute. But it is an encryption enhancer.
Pryvit does not have to start with plain
text files. The technology can be applied to any sequence of bytes
whatsoever. Therefore it is possible to start with files that
are already encrypted at whatever strength is appropriate. Shred
them to bits! Observe conventional security protocols for protecting
the reconstitution files. If you want to make life utterly miserable
for malevolent parties, use cascading fragmentation
of files that have already been encrypted.
