Patent ID: 9690513
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for use in a dispersed storage system, the method comprising: dispersed storage error encoding a block of data to produce a plurality of encoded data slices, wherein the plurality of encoded data slices includes a total number of encoded data slices and wherein a decode threshold number of encoded data slices, less than the total number of encoded data slices of the plurality of encoded data slices, are needed to recover the block of data; determining a desired level of security of the block of data to provide protection from potential security threats, the level of security increasing based on increasing operating system diversity over a plurality of dispersed storage units; determining an indication of a security level associated with each of a first operating system and a second operating system used by respective storage units of the plurality of dispersed storage units, wherein the first operating system is different than the second operating system; determining the plurality of dispersed storage units for storing the plurality of encoded data slices based on the desired level of security of the block of data, wherein a first subset of the plurality of dispersed storage units uses the first operating system and a second subset of the plurality of dispersed storage units uses the second operating system, wherein a number of dispersed storage units in each of the first and second subsets is less than the decode threshold number, and wherein the indication of a security level associated with each of the first operating system and the second operating system compare favorably with the desired level of security of the block of data; and sending write requests to the plurality of dispersed storage units to store the plurality of encoded data slices, wherein each of the first and second subsets of the plurality of dispersed storage units stores less than the decode threshold number of encoded data slices.