BACKGROUND

The disclosure relates to distributing controlled cryptographic data. More particularly, the methods and systems described herein relate to restricting data access based on properties of at least one of a process and a machine executing the process and to secure distribution, in a multi-tenant, high-availability remote computing environment, of data.

Typically, digital rights management systems authenticate user identity in determining whether to allow a user to access data. However, in some instances, a data user may also or alternatively be concerned with a type of computing environment from which a user accesses the data. As one example, in multi-party agreements to share data, parties to the agreement may have requirements regarding the security of the hardware storing the shared data or of processes executing on the hardware and accessing the shared data. Although some systems use agreed upon specifications to determine not to authenticate individual users of a machine, such systems do not typically involve independent verification of the hardware or software itself or without the installation of specialized hardware.

Another challenge faced in implementing digital rights management arises when data owners seek to leverage multi-tenant storage systems. Conventional systems for protecting data stored in multi-tenant systems under the control of a third-party storage provider typically require a level of trust in the third-party storage provider or that the data owner implement cryptographic solutions for securing the data prior to or after distribution of the data to the third-party storage provider. For example, conventional systems may require that a data owner trust that the third-party provider will secure the data or provide a secure mechanism for encrypting the data (e.g., providing an encryption system as well as a storage system), or that the data owner encrypt the data herself and then provide encrypted data to the third-party storage provider, or that the data forego the benefits (including lower costs) of a multi-tenant storage system.

It would be desirable to provide a system that provides functionality for allowing data owners to implement their own cryptographic solutions on a third-party storage provider and for distributing cryptographic data across third-party, multi-tenant systems, according to a method that does not require the data owner to either locally manage (e.g., outside of the third-party, multi-tenant systems) cryptographic data distribution or to trust a cryptographic solution provided by a third-party storage provider.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In one aspect, a method of restricting data access based on properties of at least one of a process and a machine executing the process includes receiving, by an access control management system, from a first computing device, information associated with an encrypted data object. The method includes requesting, by the access control management system, from a verifier, verification that a second computing device executes a process in accordance with a process attribute identified in the information associated with the encrypted data object. The method includes sending, by the access control management system, to the second computing device, the received information associated with the encrypted data object, responsive to the verification of the process attribute.

