Editing Secret sharing (section)

==Importance==

Secret sharing schemes are ideal for storing information that is highly sensitive and highly important.  Examples include:  [[encryption key]]s, [[nuclear football|missile launch code]]s, and [[numbered bank account]]s.  Each of these pieces of information must be kept highly confidential, as their exposure could be disastrous; however, it is also critical that they should not be lost.  Traditional methods for encryption are ill-suited for simultaneously achieving high levels of confidentiality and reliability.  This is because when storing the encryption key, one must choose between keeping a single copy of the key in one location for maximum secrecy, or keeping multiple copies of the key in different locations for greater reliability.  Increasing reliability of the key by storing multiple copies lowers confidentiality by creating additional attack vectors; there are more opportunities for a copy to fall into the wrong hands.  Secret sharing schemes address this problem, and allow arbitrarily high levels of confidentiality and reliability to be achieved.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Krenn|first1=Stephan|last2=Loruenser|first2=Thomas|year=2023|title=An Introduction to Secret Sharing: A Systematic Overview and Guide for Protocol Selection|doi=10.1007/978-3-031-28161-7|isbn=978-3-031-28160-0}} (also available at [https://books.google.com/books?id=RRi2EAAAQBAJ])</ref>

Secret sharing also allows the distributor of the secret to trust a group 'in aggregate'. Traditionally, giving a secret to a group for safekeeping would require that the distributor completely trust all members of the group. Secret sharing schemes allow the distributor to securely store the secret with the group even if not all members can be trusted all the time. So long as the number of traitors is never more than the critical number needed to reconstruct the secret, the secret is safe.

Secret sharing schemes are important in [[cloud computing]] environments. Thus a key can be distributed over many servers by a threshold secret sharing mechanism. The key is then reconstructed when needed.

Secret sharing has also been suggested{{by whom|date=April 2023}} for [[sensor networks]] where the links are liable to be tapped, by sending the data in shares which makes the task of the eavesdropper harder.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} The security in such environments can be made greater by continuous changing{{how|date=April 2023}} of the way the shares are constructed.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}