Swissbit Assigned Patent

Swissbit AG, Bronschhofen, Switzerland, has been assigned a patent (12393740) developed by Grobbel; Hubertus, Munich, Germany, for “methods and devices for secure access control to a data storage system and for data archiving.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for secure access control to a data storage system for a host apparatus by means of an access control device, the method comprising: as part of a first mode of operation of the access control device, receiving user data from the host apparatus and transmitting it in unmodified or modified form to the data storage system for local storage; exchanging a first cryptographic secret with a computer system to enable encryption of data by the access control device in dependence on the first cryptographic secret; receiving a data read request for at least a portion of the user data stored in the data storage system; in response to the data read request, transitioning the access control device to a second mode of operation in which the access control device is configured to perform read access but not write or delete access to the data storage system; and in the second operating mode, retrieving user data requested according to the data read request from the data storage system, encrypting them using the first cryptographic secret (K) or a key derived therefrom according to a key generation rule and transmitting the user data encrypted in this way to a predetermined user data recipient; wherein the user data is processed as part of the method in such a way that the encrypted user data transmitted as part of the second operating mode represents information which can be extracted from it for the user data recipient and which represents an identity of the access control device and/or of the data storage system or allows a clear conclusion to be drawn therefrom.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-12-14 (18/065993).