Patent ID: 8718283

Claim:
In a network comprising a number of computing devices, each arranged to securely store at least one share in a secret k for which n shares are required to reconstruct the secret and to which access to a number m of said shares can be reliably provided at any given time, a method of constructing shares in a secret comprising: determining n shares for an n-of-n secret sharing scheme, each share comprising a value y; storing at least some of said shares in said computing devices such that at least m of said n shares are reliably accessible, wherein m is less than n; and determining the shared secret k including: determining that (n-m) shares of said n shares will be unreliably accessible; generating (n-m) public shares consistent with the shared secret k and the shares value y, wherein each of the (n-m) public shares represents one of the unreliably accessible shares; storing the (n-m) public shares in a reliably accessible location; and combining any set of m of said n shares with said (n-m) public shares to regenerate the secret k.