Types of information splitting and sharing techniques

Abstract

Of the many topics which information management is concerned with, one important problem is ensuring the partial or complete confidentiality of, and the selective access by authorised persons to information resources. These problems become particularly significant for important information which is vital to the development of the company or for in-house secrets of a given corporation. As such data is frequently stored in a digital format on company computers, it becomes necessary to develop new solutions and procedures facilitating sharing such important information between persons belonging to authorised bodies (e.g. board members or groups of people given access to such information). Such opportunities for managing information arise due to the use of certain mathematical techniques originating in the fields of cryptography and steganography. However, these fields are focused on ways of encrypting information (cryptography) or hiding it (steganography), [1]. In this case, we are looking for formulas allowing information (sometimes also confidential) to be split in a way that makes its retrieval possible only for authorised persons. Information undergoing this procedure may be secret or overt, but with the reservation that it can be reconstructed only as a result of the joint action of the group of persons authorised to do so. Secret information may be split, for instance, within institutions or groups securing the operations of the state [2, 3]. Information of a lower confidentiality level may be split within corporations or even small enterprises. The techniques discussed here are universal and can be applied to any type of information that can be presented in an electronic format.