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Every user in tiCrypt has a private and public key. Public keys can and should be shared with other users as there is no risk in sharing a public key. There is, however, a huge risk in sharing a private key.

Hypothetically, private keys could be put in a secure place, as in a protected key store. However this is not what tiCrypt does.

When you put private keys in a secured place, your keys can be stolen if your secure place is hacked following the impersonation of the site-key admin and thus creating a point break into the system.

By splitting the key into multiple parts and fully separating the power of control between escrow users, you can achieve a much higher level of security, all coordinated by cryptographic mechanisms.

To understand the above process imagine the following story.

You live in your house.

You want to give other people the key to your house in case you ever lose your key. However, you only want people to be able to get into your house if you are there.

You can give a key to a friend, but they can still go behind your back and enter your house. The same goes for your family. You think about giving half of one key to one of your friends and the other half of the key to another friend. This idea could work, but they will enter the house if the two friends collaborate and put their keys together.

This solution does not suffice.

You cannot issue the pieces of the key to people that are related to each other. Hence, you give 1/3 of the key to a family member, 1/3 of the key to one of your friends, and 1/3 to a co-worker. None of the people in the three groups know each other, nor do they know who holds the different parts of the key. This solution works. And the more pieces of the key that the owner of the house issues out, the more secure their house will be.

The way that Escrow works in tiCrypt is the same.

We enforce a minimum of three escrow groups, yet we encourage more. Each time a user's key is escrowed, the backend receives "pieces" of it. If the user ever loses their private key, one member from each escrow group must get and put the pieces together.

This solution ensures that no single individual can obtain another user's private key.

note

Once a key is escrowed, each escrow group will delegate a new distinct member to hold 1/3 of your key.

Forgot Password

If you forgot your password and have no option to remember it, proceed to do the following.

• Contact your administrator or team support.
• Inquire if your administrator can escrow your key.
• Wait for them to escrow your private key.
• You will re-log in as usual.

note

You cannot use the previous key to login into the system.

danger

Suppose your administrator did not generate an escrow key for your account in the beginning. You will never be able to log in and recover your account in case you forget your password.

Accessibility Mode

tiCrypt satisfies the general AA ADA requirements using a combination of high contrast colors for partially impaired users with special needs.

To turn on the accessibility mode navigate to the tiCrypt login page.

• On the top right of the login box, click the setting Accessibility Mode.
• You have successfully toggled the accessibility mode.
• Proceed to login in a usual manner.
• Once logged in, you can manually turn off / on the accessibility mode.
  • Click your user-name in the top right.
  • In the menu, select the Theme option.
  • In the prompt, click the Default for OS option to turn off the accessibility mode.
  • Alternatively, click the High Contrast option to turn on the accessibility mode.
• Click .