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Basic Overview

Elementary Information Theory

Imagine a file with its contents equal to the number 18. Now, suppose the file owner phoned their friend and asked them to write down the number 6 and to put it somewhere safe, then wrote down the number 3 and put it in their wallet. Where would the number 18 be stored?

This trivial example shows how information (i.e. “18”) can be stored with no separately determinable path. To the file owner’s friend and to any third-party eavesdropper, the original file is unknowable. Even if someone stole the file owner’s wallet and discovered the number 3 written on a piece of paper, it would not reveal any original file information, not even its length. The numbers 6 and 3 are not literal parts of 18 and each could be factors of any number.

Elementary System Theory

Oblique Drive does not use multiplication like the trivial example above, but does replace each file (a first set of data) with a second set of data which does not contain any information from the file. Oblique Drive establishes an entire file system in this way. Each second set of data is comprised of a local aspect and a remote aspect. Apart from the file system, it is not possible to derive information about files, even given unlimited computing power. However, Oblique Drive permits a user to browse the file system, to search for and to obtain information about files and folders, even in the presence of adversaries.

Oblique Drive Does Not:

  • Use blockchain technology.
  • Use ciphers, in whole or in part.
  • Depend on key management systems.
  • Create or use keys, or split keys into shares.
  • Use secret sharing or any type of threshold scheme.
  • Wrap or bundle files inside of other encrypted containers.
  • Store parts of your files in different places, encrypted or otherwise.
  • Use one-time pads or otherwise combine your files with random data.
  • Conceal files inside hidden volumes using unformatted disk partitions or virtual containers.
  • Use steganography or other information hiding techniques such as masking or tokenization.
  • Encrypt your files then divide them into shards, or first divide your files into shards then encrypt each one.
  • Depend on secret algorithms or multiple layers of encryption - full knowledge of technology does not weaken protection.