IBM cold storage for digital assets features secure time-delay

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Technology giant IBM (NASDAQ: IBM) has announced a custody solution for digital assets as the latest offering in its confidential computing portfolio, designed to address the limitations of cold storage.

Called the IBM Hyper Protect Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO), the company says the new cold storage solution greatly reduces the need for human effort in executing transactions while providing state-of-the-art security.

In its blog post, IBM said it teamed up with technology partner Metaco and several tier-1 banks to roll out the offering, which it says leverages the zero-trust approach of IBM’s computing solutions. As stated in the announcement, the air-gapped cold storage offering has several features, including time-based security and approval from multiple stakeholders.

Air-gapped digital wallets are designed to be disconnected from the internet or any other wireless communication, typically using QR codes and micro-SD cards to sign transactions.

“OSO turns the entire digital asset transaction signing process from a manual operation to a completely automated and policy driven one, without eliminating the human control—just the operational involvement is eliminated,” read the blog post.

Although OSO prides itself on keeping human interaction to the barest minimum, the solution allows users to assign auditors to approve or reject transactions as an added layer of security. IBM’s blog post sheds light on the time delay function enabling users to set two timers—one for verification and the other for publication on the publicly distributed ledgers.

“Hence, in the event of a forced attack, the attacker may force the initialization of a transaction but would have to wait the allotted amount of time (maybe 1–2 days if second timer is defined like this) for the transaction to be published on the blockchain, giving stakeholders the ability to cancel the transaction or even allowing time for law enforcement to intervene,” according to IBM.

IBM says its offer is available to individual and corporate clients. Still, users must leverage the IBM LinuxOne III or IBM z15 and use configured IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers for OSO.

The company has been working in blockchain with a list of patents revolving around a data-sharing platform as well as a blockchain-based drone fleet security service.

Cold storage or go home

As digital currency regulations become clearer, authorities push service providers to turn to cold storage solutions to prevent black swan incidents like hacks and other security breaches.

In Hong Kong and Japan, digital asset service providers are required to keep a portion of assets in cold storage, with experts predicting future regulatory frameworks will include air-gapped storage solutions. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has joined the fray with new rules for firms to establish a digital wallet management system after banning staking and lending services.

“An audit of system security is also required, as well as digital forensic investigation in case of any event affecting the security of systems related to digital asset custody, which could cause significant impacts on clients’ assets,” said Thailand’s SEC.

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