The Pesto project. Goals and motivation

Abstract

Pesto is a storage system geared towards a computing model where private machines play a pivotal role. Sharing of data is crucial, both between partners, and between the many devices owned by individual users. Replication is the only sensible means to provide ubiquitous access to private data. However, without provisions, replication endangers privacy by enlarging the Trusted Computing Base. The Pesto project aims at investigating security and safety issues in concert, such that security and safety measures and mechanisms can be identified that strengthen each other and, when that is not possible, to identify tradeoffs between safety and security of data in distributed systems. This report introduces the Pesto project and system; the motivation behind it and its design goals.