Secrecy

Information conveys value as it travels around our systems, resting for a time in our data stores. The value we get out of it is sometimes matched by the value others would get from it as well. We need mechanisms to protect sensitive information from prying eyes and control with whom we share it.

Technologies don't magically become solutions. They are used within domain, design and deployment contexts. This talk will focus on the singular notion of Secrecy and how it cross-cuts the distributed systems we are building.

This talk will focus on strategies from the world of encryption to keep secrets secret as we produce, store and transfer information in distributed systems. A successful strategy for doing so will rely on notions of Identity and a strong Privilege model, but we will mostly focus on specific building blocks upon which we maintain Privacy and Confidentiality.

We will also address the forces that undermine our ability to trust encryption such as bugs, design flaws and those who wish to actively undermine our need to maintain Secrecy.