Recently, I had the opportunity to engage with several executives from diverse industries such as banking, shipping, and HR during a dinner in Hong Kong. The focal point of our conversation was AI and decentralized storage, revealing a pressing global concern—data control across country boundaries, an issue especially pronounced in Asia due to the lack of a unified data sovereignty alliance like the EU.
Each nation, and sometimes each company, must forge its own path and agreements regarding data flow across its borders. Data, inherently boundless and without the need for "passports," poses unique challenges in today’s digital landscape, particularly as we delve deeper into the realms of generative AI and the emerging quantum computing.
This week, Chris Mellor from Blocks & Files highlighted these issues in an interview with Shawn Rosemarin, VP for R&D at Pure Storage. Discussing the criteria for running generative AI training workloads, Shawn emphasized the importance of security and compliance, noting the risks involved in storing proprietary datasets in the cloud where they might be accessed or used by others for monetization purposes.
The paradox here is clear: while cloud resources and temporary compute (GPU) instances are ideal for running training models, they also present significant risks to data security. This epitomizes a modern IT paradox—the very resources we rely on could potentially lead to our undoing.
Innovation is all about resolving such paradoxes. If we value the data our companies generate, controlling and accessing it securely becomes a critical conundrum. At DeStor, we believe in the power of decentralized storage to address these issues. Within the Filecoin ecosystem, we provide robust solutions for data security, privacy, and integrity:
1. In-Motion Encryption: Ensuring data remains secure as it moves from one location to another over the internet.
2. At-Rest Encryption: Utilizing advanced cryptographic algorithms to protect stored data, making it unintelligible even if unauthorized access is gained.
3. Data Chunking: After encryption, data is broken down into smaller pieces and distributed across various approved geolocations within the decentralized Filecoin network. This makes unauthorized reassembly exceedingly difficult.
4. Data Access: Decrypting the data requires not only the decryption key but also knowledge of the distribution pattern, further safeguarding your information.
Our daily cryptographic checks verify that data remains unchanged and in its rightful place. This method is far more robust than traditional single-point verification systems, employing advanced technologies like zk-SNARKS.
Perhaps we should call this a "Data Passport" system—where security, privacy, and integrity travel together seamlessly. So, to all data owners and SMEs out there: do you have control over your data? If you're looking to enhance your data security and management, reach out to us. We’re here to help you navigate these challenges and ensure your data not only survives but thrives in the digital ecosystem.
