Electronic Safe for Data and Documents

The project “Electronic Safe” of IBM and Fraunhofer FOKUS deals with the conception and realization of a virtual safe for personal data and digital documents. The solution based on IBM technologies focuses on the trustworthy safekeeping of data.

While previous concepts merely warrant the confidentiality of data through their encryption, the “Electronic Safe” makes use the additional mechanisms so that data can be maintained via unsecured communication networks in the long run.

The owner’s data is stored in decentralized storage blocks that are not bound to trustworthy infrastructures of the IT service providers, meaning that the IT provider has no access to the data and documents without the permission of the citizen. Conventional systems require a regular re-encryption of data. The documents in the “Electronic Safe” are stored in such a way that they cannot be viewed even when the encryption key has expired. The “Electronic Safe” facilitates the electronic access of citizens to the public administration. It gives citizens the necessary tools to control and understand the use of personal data.

The “Electronic Safe” provides the administration – or the Internet-based company – with access to high quality, partly pseudonymized data and documents that are necessary to process requests or complete business transactions.