Safeberg Introducing Paper Key

The Dutch security company Safeberg announced a Paper Key for its online backup service for doctors, notaries, lawyers and other people that value privacy. The paper key provides secure access to backup data and can be stored away from the computer, in a safe, deposit box or at a notary office.

Stefan Hoevenaar, founder of Safeberg, said: “Online backup is very practical. But can it offer privacy? Can a doctor backup patient files online? Would you backup your life online? With those questions in mind we developed the Offline Private Key Protocol (OPKP) and the Paper Key.”

The OPKP security protocol demands that the private (decryption) key should be stored away from the ‘source’ computer. As a result, the private key needs to be fairly large to be secure: Safeberg uses 4,096 bits RSA keys, which, according to government and military standards, should at least be secure for the next 30 years.

Stefan Hoevenaar added: “4,096 bits is about 800 characters… How can you store that offline? Would you trust that key to a USB stick for a few years?”

The Safeberg Trusted Paper Key is a 4,096 bits RSA key encoded in a 2D Datamatrix Barcode. To use the key, the user can take a picture with a camera or mobile phone.

This is a sample Paper Key as generated by Safeberg.
The 2D barcode (Datamatrix) stores a 4.096 bits RSA private key.

Safeberg Backup will be released early May 2010.