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Consider you want to share the passwords to your bank accounts with your family after you die. You take a list of those passwords, and encrypt it using SSSS wi

Consider you want to share the passwords to your bank accounts with your family after you die. You take a list of those passwords, and encrypt it using SSSS with 4 of 7 keys needed to decrypt. You then share these 7 keys with your 7 relatives. After your death, they get together and unlock your passwords.

jancsika 8y ago
They can access the bank accounts, but can they legally perform any meaningful transaction with the data/money they access? For example-- suppose that person dies and these 7 relatives access the account and wire themselves some money. With no other arrangements made, doesn't that constitute bank fraud? On the flip side-- if the relatives also have to go through the time-consuming processes of meetings with an estate lawyer and bank managers in order to fulfill the wishes of the deceased, what function does the cryptography perform in this case?
- late2part 8y ago
  Maybe your bank accounts are held in nominee officer shelf corps in offshore companies. I used an arbitrary example as a vehicle to show how the m of n could access info.
bborud 8y ago
Yeah, I know of plenty of use-cases for it but I have never worked on a project that required a secret sharing capability. I'm too lazy to make a product just because I want to use a cool algorithm. However, during the data retention debate in Norway I repeatedly pointed out that the only responsible way to implement the act would be to use secret sharing to ensure that a sufficient number of parties were involved when unlocking someone's private data.
- late2part 8y ago
  Exactly. Consider the case where you require one and only one security officer that has one and only one key. In that scenario the security officer can escrow with encryption the key file using SSSS . You could then distribute the SSSS keys to various executives who could use quorum to retrieve the escrowed key.

jancsika 8y ago

They can access the bank accounts, but can they legally perform any meaningful transaction with the data/money they access? For example-- suppose that person dies and these 7 relatives access the account and wire themselves some money. With no other arrangements made, doesn't that constitute bank fraud? On the flip side-- if the relatives also have to go through the time-consuming processes of meetings with an estate lawyer and bank managers in order to fulfill the wishes of the deceased, what function does the cryptography perform in this case?

late2part 8y ago
Maybe your bank accounts are held in nominee officer shelf corps in offshore companies. I used an arbitrary example as a vehicle to show how the m of n could access info.

bborud 8y ago

Yeah, I know of plenty of use-cases for it but I have never worked on a project that required a secret sharing capability. I'm too lazy to make a product just because I want to use a cool algorithm. However, during the data retention debate in Norway I repeatedly pointed out that the only responsible way to implement the act would be to use secret sharing to ensure that a sufficient number of parties were involved when unlocking someone's private data.

late2part 8y ago
Exactly. Consider the case where you require one and only one security officer that has one and only one key. In that scenario the security officer can escrow with encryption the key file using SSSS . You could then distribute the SSSS keys to various executives who could use quorum to retrieve the escrowed key.