essential characteristics of a Data Haven

folks,

  looking thru the cyphernomicon, this is about all i could come up with
for characteristics of a data haven:

|16.22. Data Havens
|  16.22.1. "What are data havens?"
|           + Places where data can be hidden or protected against legal
|              action.
|             - Sterling, "Islands in the Net," 1988


  anyone have a list of the essential characteristics of a data haven?
what differentiates a "data haven" from "reasonably secure offsite
storage"?

here's my attempt at a working definition:


a "data haven"...

1. "securely" stores data files for remote users.
2. will only allow "authorized" entities to store files in the data haven.
3. will only allow "owners" of the files to withdraw their files from the 
      data haven. 
4. differentiates "authorized" entities from "non-authorized ones, and 
      "owners" from "non-owners", only by means of cryptographic keys.

  terms i left undefined are "securely," authorized," and "owner." by
"secure" i imagine a DH will attempt to prevent its data from being
destroyed, or read by anyone other than the data's "owner." by
"authorized" i imagine that a DH will not want to accept data from
just anyone. (for instance, people who don't pay.) by "owner" i mean
the specific "authorized" entity that stored the data in the DH.

  i imagine that most DH's will need to accept digital cash to be able
to operate. is this an essential characteristic of a cp data haven?
what did i leave out?

adam

adamfast@seanet.com

From: Adam Feuer <adamfast@seanet.com>

   what differentiates a "data haven" from "reasonably secure offsite
   storage"?

Right now, that's easy.  Data havens don't exist, and prototype code
for reasonably secure off-site storage does.

The key distinguishing feature of off-site storage is that it stores
data only as bits, structured and segmented, but not interpreted _as_
anything but bits.  A data haven, on the other hand, holds things that
someone disapproves of, otherwise there's no need for a haven.  _A
fortiori_, if someone disapproves of it, it must mean something.  Raw
bits don't mean anything, or rather, they can mean everything.

Eric