Robust Key Management for Secure Data Deletion

Abstract

This chapter considers the problem of an unreliable securely deleting storage medium, that is, one that may lose data, expose data, fail to delete data, and fail to be available. We build a robust fault-tolerant system that uses multiple unreliable storage media. The system permits multiple clients to store securely deletable data and provides a means to control policy aspects of its storage and deletion. It presents details on the implementation both of the distributed securely deleting medium as well as a file system extension that uses it. The solution has low latency at high loads and requires only a small amount of communication among nodes.