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How do I recover user group data from a user who left the institution?

Prevention​

You must prevent this scenario from the beginning. To do that, several precautions may be taken:

  • Have all users sign a contract with the institution that includes a data protocol in case the user leaves the institution.
  • Make sure users accept the T&C's that pop up when they log into tiCrypt.
  • Designate an encrypted drive for the group members who will transfer their findings at the end of the research.

Key Recovery​

If it is the case that a user has left the institution without following the data guidelines, you may consider recovering the user's private key via the escrow mechanism.

To recover a user's private key:

  • Contact the escrow users groups from your institution.
  • The escrow users will come together each having a part of the user's private key and hand it to the site-key admin.
  • The site-key admin will digitally sign the escrow key.
  • Once the private key is recovered, the escrow team will sync with a super-admin to re-login into the system.
  • The user group data will be shared with the super-admin in the vault or transferred into a super-admin-owned virtual machine.
    • Optionally you can download the user data to a secured offline local machine or a thumb drive.

Additional Actions​

  • Ask the user for their private key password so that an admin can log in and transfer the data to a secured encrypted drive.
  • Request a data transfer from the user based on the institution's legal guidelines for handling the data.
  • If no cooperation is agreed upon, open a legal dispute with the user to the level that allows recovery of the data.