IBM launches new encrypted asset cold storage technology OSO.

IBM Introduces New OSO Technology for Secure Cold Storage of Encrypted Assets.

Author: Tristan Greene, Cointelegraph; Translation: Song Xue, LianGuai

IBM announced on December 5th the launch of IBM Hyper Protect Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO), which is an isolation cold storage solution for digital assets.

IBM, in collaboration with digital asset management company Metaco (a subsidiary of IBM partner Ripple) and a top bank, developed this end-to-end asset encryption service to address common vulnerabilities in typical cold storage solutions.

According to the announcement: “There are limitations when it comes to offline or physically isolated cold storage, including privileged administrator access, operating costs, errors, and inability to truly achieve scalability. All these limitations stem from one fundamental factor – human interaction.”

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Cold Storage

IBM designed OSO to address these vulnerabilities by eliminating manual functionality for initiation and execution of transactions. Similar to a timed release safe deposit box that cannot be opened on request, OSO can be configured to send transactions from cold storage to the blockchain only at specific times or under authorized conditions through a multi-party governance scheme, and vice versa.

According to the blog post and related research, doing so can prevent the most common forms of internal attacks, including physical access, administrative manipulation, and coercion attacks. If an unauthorized person gains access to the system, whether physically or remotely, they can only initiate transactions during approved times and must wait for approval and execution of the transactions to access/steal the assets.

To further ensure resistance to attacks, digital assets can be placed in “isolated” storage containers. When the storage is not connected to the internet or any device capable of connecting to the internet, it is considered isolated. This ensures that remote attacks cannot access the digital assets while they are at rest.

Ensuring Blockchain Transaction Security

In typical isolation paradigms, administrators managing cold storage solutions often have to physically carry storage devices like laptops or USB drives and pass them to offline hardware for transaction signing. This manual process introduces human errors, which is a non-malicious form of attack that can be as costly as deliberate exploitation.

OSO implements a policy engine that allows communication in situations where it is not connected to both applications at the same time. Because it operates through IBM’s confidential compute services in a virtual and partitioned server manner, it also has no direct external network connections. This can prevent human errors during the manual process while also blocking remote access (hacking) during the transaction process.

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