Abstract: Methods and systems for administrative management of a secure data storage network are disclosed. One system includes a secure storage appliance configured to host a plurality of volumes, each volume associated with a plurality of shares stored on a corresponding plurality of physical storage devices and having a plurality of volume management settings, wherein each volume is accessible by a group of one or more users, each user assigned an administrative access level, the volume management settings are editable by a first user from the group of one or more users associated with the volume and assigned an administrative access level sufficient to edit the volume management settings, and the volume management settings are inaccessible by a second user from outside the group of one or more users associated with the volume and assigned an administrative access level at least equal to that of the first user.

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 data blocks by performing splitting and encrypting operations on a primary data block received from the client for storage on the virtual disk and reconstitute the primary data block from at least a portion of the plurality of secondary data blocks stored in shares on corresponding physical storage devices in response to a request from the client. Write counters written with the secondary data blocks are used to determine whether the secondary data blocks were stored correctly.

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.