Google shows minicomputer Vault for encrypting data

During its I/O conference on Friday evening, Google showed a secure minicomputer with which data can be encrypted and decrypted. The computer, Project Vault, is still in the experimental phase, but Google has probably released an SDK for developers.

Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects division, ATAP for short, is currently working on the Vault project. That includes a mini computer the size of a micro SD card. On the computer, users can store up to 4GB of important data encrypted.

Under the hood, Project Vault has its own ARM processor and an NFC chip for authentication. The computer runs on a real-time operating system, which is strongly focused on data security. For example, the system includes software for hashing, signing and batch encryption.

Project Vault can communicate with almost all devices that have a micro-SD card connection. They recognize the computer as a regular storage drive. This means that Vault also works cross-platform and can therefore be used in combination with, for example, Android or Windows.

Vault is just more than a storage drive. The file system consists of two files: a read and a write file. This means that, in theory, external parties can never see the communication between them. As an example, Google showed chat software running on Vault. The text was encrypted and sent to another Vault device and then decrypted.

Google did not announce Friday what it eventually wants to use the technology for or whether Vault will also be available for existing systems. The technology giant did say it would test the minicomputer internally, presumably for business use. For developers, Google has released the sdk via GitHub under the Apache license. Like the dev board, it is completely open source, right down to the CPU designs.