Symform Achieves SSAE 16 Compliance

Symform, Inc., a cloud storage and backup service, announced two milestones that validate its Global Cloud Storage Network.

The company achieved compliance to the recently-revised SAS70 mandate, now known as the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) 16, a standard to validate controls at cloud based service organizations.

In addition, Symform received its second patent in just three years. The title of invention for this latest patent is, Storage Device for Use in a Shared Community Storage Network certifying the security, availability, and reliability of devices that store data across the Symform network.

"Symform is growing at a record pace as we build a massive and revolutionary peer-to-peer global cloud data storage network, and the SSAE 16 compliance and patent award are the latest in an important series of validation milestones for Symform’s disruptive service," said Matthew J. Schiltz, CEO of Symform. "However, the greatest proof of our model is the trust we have from the thousands of users who have joined our cloud storage network to obtain better security, speed, and revolutionary cost savings."

Symform is SSAE 16 compliant-based on the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 auditor’s report, which evaluates and reports on the design and operating effectiveness of a service organization’s controls as they relate to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of a system. Symform is the first company with decentralized storage architecture to receive the SSAE 16 compliance for operational controls at a data center, according to the company.

Unlike traditional centralized data center-based storage, Symform’s Global Cloud Storage Network is a decentralized data storage system that encrypts, shreds, and geo-distributes data across a secure global peer-to-peer network.

The patent validates this global distribution system, verifying that Symform has developed a technology platform that ensures data protection and system availability throughout the de-centralized network. Customers join the Symform network by contributing their excess local storage and, in exchange, receive the most affordable, unlimited cloud storage and backup. The model is similar to how Skype leverages bandwidth and devices across its global peer-to-peer voice and video chat network to enable cost-effective, fast communications. The patent covers multiple areas of the distributed system, including how data is encrypted prior to transmission, how only data shards are distributed, and the reduced threat of data breaches since all nodes only store a tiny fragment of a file or piece of data.