# US 2020/0401324 A1 · Authorizing modification of resources

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- Number: US 2020/0401324 A1
- Document ID: US20200401324A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/449,802
- Filed: 2019-06-24
- Published: 2020-12-24
- Earliest claimed: 2019-06-24
- Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation
- Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation
- Inventors: Amit H. Lamba; Mark D. Seaborn; Akila Srinivasan
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200401324A1

## CPC

- G06F 3/0619: {in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors}
- G06F 3/0622: {in relation to access}
- G06F 3/0634: {by changing the state or mode of one or more devices}
- G06F 3/064: {Management of blocks}
- G06F 3/0659: {Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling}
- G06F 3/067: {Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]}
- G06F 21/40: by quorum, i.e. whereby two or more security principals are required
- G06F 21/44: Program or device authentication
- G06F 21/6209: {to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself}
- H04L 63/101: {Access control lists [ACL]}
- H04L 67/1097: for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

A method for execution by a computing device includes determining a set of actor parties required to authorize a change of protection status of a stored resource from a protected status to an unprotected status. A minimum quorum is determined for each of the set of actor parties. A plurality of authorizations to change the protection status of the resource to the unprotected status are received from a plurality of requestors via the network. A plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors corresponding to the set of actor parties are identified. The protection status of the resource is set to the unprotected status in response to determining, for every one of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets is greater than or equal to the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for execution by a computing device that includes a processor, the method comprises:
facilitating storage of a resource in memory managed by the computing device;
setting a protection status of the resource to a protected status in response to facilitating storage of the resource;
determining a set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to an unprotected status;
determining a minimum quorum for each of the set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to the unprotected status;
receiving, from a plurality of requestors via a network, a plurality of authorizations to change the protection status of the resource from the protected status to the unprotected status;
identifying a plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors, wherein each one of the plurality of subsets corresponds to one of the set of actor parties; and
setting the protection status of the resource to the unprotected status in response to determining, for every one of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is greater than or equal to the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, via the network, a request indicating a modification of the resource; and
facilitating the modification of the resource in response to determining the protection status of the resource is set as the unprotected status.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the request is received from one of the plurality of requestors, and wherein the modification of the resource is facilitated in further response to determining that the one of the plurality of requestors corresponds to one of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
maintaining the protection status of the resource as the protected status in response to determining, for one of the set of actor parties, that the number of requestors in the corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is less than the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors includes extracting credential data from at least one of the plurality of authorizations, and wherein each one of the plurality of subsets includes only ones of the plurality of requestors with credential data extracted from corresponding ones of the plurality of authorizations indicating the ones of the plurality of requestors are validated as members of one of the set of actor parties corresponding to the one of the plurality of subsets.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the plurality of requestors is included in none of the plurality of subsets in response to determining that the credential data for the at least one of the plurality of requestors indicates the at least one of the plurality of requestors is not validated as a member of any of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein a number of actor parties in the set of actor parties is greater than one, and wherein the minimum quorum for each the set of actor parties is greater than or equal to one.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein a first one of the set of actor parties corresponds to an owner party, wherein a second one of the set of actor parties corresponds to an operator party, wherein the owner party corresponds to a plurality of end users, wherein the operator party includes a single operator, wherein the minimum quorum for the operator party is equal to one, and wherein the protection status of the resource is set to the unprotected status in response to determining that the number of requestors in a first one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors corresponding to the owner party is greater than or equal to a minimum quorum for the owner party, and in further response to determining that the number of requestors in a second one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors corresponding to the operator party includes the single operator.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the plurality of end users in the owner party based on identifying a plurality of end users corresponding to the resource.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the minimum quorum for the owner party is greater than one.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein an additional actor party corresponds to an arbitrator party, further comprising:
identifying an arbitrator subset of the plurality of requestors, wherein the arbitrator subset includes ones of the plurality of requestors corresponding to the arbitrator party;
determining, for exactly one of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is less than the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties; and
setting the protection status of the resource to the unprotected status in response to determining, for all remaining ones of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is greater than or equal to the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties, and in response to further determining that a number of requestors in the arbitrator subset is greater than or equal to a minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving minimum quorum selection data, wherein the minimum quorum selection data was generated by a client device corresponding to an administrator based on user input to a graphical user interface in response to a prompt presented by the graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface was displayed by a display device of the client device;
wherein the minimum quorum is determined for each of the set of actor parties based on the minimum quorum selection data.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein a sum of minimum quorums for all of the set of actor parties is greater than one in response to the prompt presented by the graphical user interface requiring the minimum quorum selection data to adhere to a number of actor parties in the set of actor parties being greater than one, and the minimum quorum for each the set of actor parties being greater than or equal to one.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the minimum quorum for at least one of the set of actor parties is calculated as a function of a number of possible requestors included in the at least one of the set of actor parties, and wherein the number of possible requestors included in the at least one of the set of actor parties is greater than one.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is implemented as a DST processing unit, wherein the resource includes a data segment, and wherein facilitating storage of the resource includes:
dispersed storage error encoding the data segment to produce a set of encoded data slices for storage in a set of storage units; and
transmitting the set of encoded data slices for storage to the set of storage units via the network.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is implemented as a storage unit, wherein the resource corresponds to an encoded data slice, further comprising:
receiving the encoded data slice for storage from a DST processing unit, wherein the DST processing unit generated the encoded data slice by dispersed storage error encoding a data segment to produce a set of encoded data slices that includes the encoded data slice for storage in a set of storage units that includes the storage unit;
wherein facilitating storage of resource includes storing the encoded data slice in a memory device of the storage unit.

### Claim 17

A processing system of a computing device comprises:
at least one processor;
a memory that stores operational instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor cause the processing system to:
facilitate storage of a resource in memory managed by the computing device;
set a protection status of the resource to a protected status in response to facilitating storage of the resource;
determine a set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to an unprotected status;
determine a minimum quorum for each of the set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to the unprotected status;
receive, from a plurality of requestors via a network, a plurality of authorizations to change the protection status of the resource from the protected status to an unprotected status;
identify a plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors, wherein each one of the plurality of subsets corresponds to one of the set of actor parties; and
set the protection status of the resource to the unprotected status in response to determining, for every one of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is greater than or equal to the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The processing system of claim 17, wherein the operational instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the processing system to:
receive, via the network, a request indicating a modification of the resource; and
facilitate the modification of the resource in response to determining the protection status of the resource is set as the unprotected status.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

The processing system of claim 17, wherein identifying the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors includes extracting credential data from at least one of the plurality of authorizations, and wherein each one of the plurality of subsets includes only ones of the plurality of requestors with credential data extracted from corresponding ones of the plurality of authorizations indicating the ones of the plurality of requestors are validated as members of one of the set of actor parties corresponding to the one of the plurality of subsets.

### Claim 20

A computer readable storage medium comprises:
at least one memory section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by a processing system that includes a processor and a memory, causes the processing system to:
facilitate storage of a resource in memory;
set a protection status of the resource to a protected status in response to facilitating storage of the resource;
determine a set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to an unprotected status;
determine a minimum quorum for each of the set of actor parties required to authorize a change of the protection status of the resource from the protected status to the unprotected status;
receive, from a plurality of requestors via a network, a plurality of authorizations to change the protection status of the resource from the protected status to an unprotected status;
identify a plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors, wherein each one of the plurality of subsets corresponds to one of the set of actor parties; and
set the protection status of the resource to the unprotected status in response to determining, for every one of the set of actor parties, that a number of requestors in a corresponding one of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of requestors is greater than or equal to the minimum quorum for the one of the set of actor parties.