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Using a master encryption key to sanitize a dispersed storage network memory

  • US 10,379,778 B2
  • Filed: 08/18/2016
  • Issued: 08/13/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2016
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

  • identifying, for data stored as a set of encoded data slices within a corresponding set of storage units within a DSN memory, one or more encryption keys used to encrypt the data within the DSN memory;

    identifying, for data stored within a portion of the DSN memory requiring sanitization, a master key of the one or more encryption keys that reflects a smallest number of encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices that also includes all encoded data slices of the portion of the DSN memory requiring sanitization;

    determining, when the master key is not used to encrypt data stored outside of the portion of the DSN memory requiring sanitization; and

    when the master key is not used to encrypt data stored outside the portion of the DSN memory requiring sanitization, sanitizing, by erasing the master key, the data stored within the portion of the DSN memory.

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