Abstract: Methods and systems for storing data securely in a secure data storage network are disclosed. One method includes receiving at a secure storage appliance a block of data for storage on a volume, the volume associated with a plurality of shares distributed across a plurality of physical storage devices. The method also includes cryptographically splitting the block of data received by the secure storage appliance into a plurality of secondary data blocks. The method further includes encrypting each of the plurality of secondary data blocks with a different session key, each session key associated with at least one of the plurality of shares. The method also includes storing each data block and associated session key at the corresponding share, remote from the secure storage appliance.

Abstract: Methods and systems for securing data in a data storage network are disclosed. One method includes receiving at a secure storage appliance a block of data for storage on a volume, the volume associated with a plurality of shares distributed across a plurality of physical storage devices. The method further includes cryptographically splitting the block of data received by the secure storage appliance into a plurality of secondary data blocks, and cryptographically splitting the session key into a plurality of session key fragments. The method further includes encrypting each of the plurality of secondary data blocks with a different session key, each session key associated with at least one of the plurality of shares, and encrypting each of the plurality of session key fragments with a workgroup key associated with a source of the block of data.

Abstract: A secure storage appliance is disclosed, along with methods of storing and reading data in a secure storage network. The secure storage appliance is configured to present to a client a virtual disk, the virtual disk mapped to the plurality of physical storage devices. The secure storage appliance is capable of executing program instructions configured to generate a plurality of secondary blocks of data by performing splitting and encrypting operations on a block of data received from the client for storage on the virtual disk and reconstitute the block of data from at least a portion of the plurality of secondary blocks of data stored in shares on corresponding physical storage devices in response to a request from the client.