CAN A DISTRIBUTED KEY SYSTEM BROKEN UP OVER MULTIPLE NODES PROVIDE GREATER SECURITY ROBUSTNESS WHILE MEETING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

摘要

The need for increased network security has never been greater, with a new high profile security breach seemingly occurring on a weekly basis. Encryption can be a valuable tool in increasing network security, however, its weakness often resides in the vulnerability of the cryptographic key. If a given node in a network contains the whole key and it is compromised, then the network's security is breached. Also, if the key is destroyed then all the information it protects could be lost. In this paper we look at the option of breaking the key up over multiple nodes, in this case six, while only three nodes are necessary to replicate the key and unlock the lock. This hopefully creates greater security while also providing a greater level of fault tolerance by allowing retrieval of the entire key even if three of the nodes are compromised.