[117896] in Cypherpunks
Re: request for information/virtual private network as
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (holist)
Tue Sep 14 12:49:08 1999
Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990914172719.007d5e30@mail.elender.hu>
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 17:27:19 +0200
To: "Michael J. Fromberger" <Fromberger@Clothing.Dartmouth.EDU>,
cypherpunks@toad.com
From: holist <holist@elender.hu>
In-Reply-To: <19990914100714.C21668@linguist.dartmouth.edu>
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Reply-To: holist <holist@elender.hu>
At 10:07 1999. 09. 14. -0400, Michael J. Fromberger wrote:
>quoth holist:
>> I wonder if it is possible to create a virtual private network which,
>> operating as a parallel architecture composed of its nodes, implements a
>> database that is accessible from each of the nodes in such a way that the
>> information contained in any one or few of the nodes does not permit
>> reconstruction of the database and in which the database would be "doing
>> sommersaults" all the time so that only simultaneous interception of the
>> data content of the majority of nodes would allow the database to be
>> reconstructed?
>
>It seems like you're basically describing a software RAID, where the
>data are mirrored, but instead of mirroring literal copies, you mirror
>shares of the data constructed using some secret-sharing scheme.
>Would some variation of Shamir's linear-algebraic scheme work for this
>purpose?
No, while I don't pretend to be acquainted with the linear-algebraic
scheme, I don't think mirroring is the word for what I am looking for - the
reason is clear from your next paragraph:
>Of course, you'd have the problem that if one of your nodes bit the
>dust, you'd be screwed, but then that's the point of encryption.
No, that's not the point - it would have to have graceful degradation as
well - so that I could loose a fair-few of the nodes before the system
breaks down. I am not a hands on programmer, the only programming
experience I have is in programming the heads of other programmers in plain
english - but I think in terms of a massively parallel architecture which
implements a serial architecture such as a database with appropriate
handling tools - given Turing's theorem, this is certainly theoretically
possible, but I wonder if it is anywhere near implementable, or perhaps
implemented already. The notion is basically that of developing a
"members-only" virtual space that relies on public infrastructure but which
is maximally robust against crackery.
thanks for the response,
holist
>-M
>
