Symantec Assigned Four Patents

Relocating de-dupe data within multi-device storage system

Symantec Corp., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,280,854) developed by Travis Emmert, Maplewood, MN, for "systems and methods for relocating deduplicated data within a multi-device storage system."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A computer-implemented method for relocating deduplicated data within a multi-device storage system. The method may include identifying a set of deduplicated data units stored on a first device of the multi-device storage system. Each data unit in the set of data units is referred to by one or more deduplication references. The method may also include procuring reference data that indicates, for each data unit in the set of deduplicated data units, the number of deduplication references that point to the data unit. The method may further include using the reference data to select one or more data units from the set of deduplicated data units for relocation to a second device in the multi-device storage system and relocating the one or more data units to the second device in the multi-device storage system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 1, 2009 (12/552,089).

Protecting against chosen plaintext attacks
in untrusted storage environments that support de-dupe

Symantec Operating Corp., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,281,143) developed by Thomas G. Clifford, Edina, MN, and Weibao Wu, Vadnais, MN, for "protecting against chosen plaintext attacks in untrusted storage environments that support data deduplication."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Various methods and systems for protecting against chosen plaintext attacks when encrypting data for storage on an untrusted storage system are disclosed. One method involves generating an encryption key for use in encrypting data and generating an identifier for the data. Generation of the encryption key is based upon a hash of the data to be encrypted. The method also involves detecting whether an encrypted copy of the data is already stored by a storage system, based upon the identifier. The method also modifies the data to be encrypted or the encryption key, based upon a client-specific value, prior to generating the identifier."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 29, 2008 (12/240,405).

Restoring an image to software encrypted disk or volume

Symantec Corp., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,271,771) developed by Robert Chester, Auckland, New Zealand, for a "systems and methods for restoring an image to a software encrypted disk or volume."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A computer-implemented method for restoring an image to an encrypted disk is described. An image to restore to the disk is identified. Information is read from one or more file systems currently residing on the disk to identify one or more sectors on the disk that are reserved for a disk encryption driver. The image is restored to one or more non-reserved sectors on the disk. One or more file systems are created on the disk that are associated with the restored image."

The patent application was filed on June 17, 2009 (12/486,649).

Hardware secured portable storage

Symantec Corp., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,281,388) developed by William E. Sobel, Jamul, CA, and Brian Hernacki, Mountain View, CA, for a "hardware secured portable storage."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A portable storage device contains a real time clock, an onboard power source and secure storage. These components enable the device to securely store data and control access thereto. A secret key can be maintained in secure storage, such that access to the device can be denied to external systems that do not have a matching key. A log detailing connections can also be maintained in secure storage, such that device activity can be accurately documented, and made available in a trusted manner to a management system. Furthermore, the onboard real time clock allows stored data to be encrypted and decrypted in conjunction with specified time periods, such that a session key is destroyed after a time out, or is not made available until a given period of time has transpired."

The patent application was filed on June 27, 2008 (12/163,690).