Where can I learn about proven methods for sharing cryptographic keys?

Question

Suppose that a group wants to encrypt some information, then share the encryption key among the group members in a way that requires the consensus of the group to decrypt th

Answer 1

Lotus Notes provides a practcal implementation of 'Silo passwords' whereby access to some resource (data/info/document) is locked to a 'shared-id' - The ID (part of a certfied PKI system I think based on RSA) is setup with 2 or more (I think up to 16) individual user passwords. The certifier/administrator sets up a scheme whereby any number of passwords from those available or all passwords are necessary to 'open' the id for active use. This process is commonly used to lock-down Org or OU certificates to 2 of 5 or 3 of 5 administrators/corporate officer grant access and so ensure that high-level certificate usage/access can be controlled and absentee admin personnel are avoided.