NUTS | Digital Body Armor

About Us

We are simplifying data privacy and encryption with our innovative and novel data containers we call nuts based on our Zero Trust Data framework.

Frequently Asked Question & Help

Your Nut Manager Password
The NutManager password is a password that you created and set during the installation and setup of the NutManager (NM) application. Your NM password is the key to your ecosystem and built-in key management system. This is the only password you will need to remember, and it is critical that you do not lose or forget it. By design, we cannot “reset” or “resend” your password (Refer to Who uses NutManager?).We cannot emphasize enough the importance of taking care of your NM password. Without the password, it is not possible to unlock and access any of your documents. You can refer to Password protection options for ideas on how you can help to keep your NM password safe.
Who uses Nut Manager
The NutManager is a data management platform designed to securely share sensitive information between people, organizations, within and amongst governments. This includes private individuals and anyone wishing to enhance their privacy like journalists, activist, and maybe people financing censorship.
The NutManager can securely message, cover the data lifecycle of documents, is data distributed and decentralized, can integrate with cloud storage, and operates in air gapped systems.
How often should I upgrade?
It is highly recommended that NM is kept up to date with the latest software release. It is recommended to upgrade as soon as a new version or patch becomes available, this includes critical systems like operating systems, antivirus software, and web browsers. These all play a role in protecting your system and data.

System Prerequisites

Supported Windows Operating System versions.

OS	Version	Server/Client	NUT Application	Architecture
Windows 10 Client	Version 1607 or greater	Client OS	NUT Manager	64-Bit
Windows 11 Client	Any	Client OS	NUT Manager	64-Bit
Windows Server	2012 R2 and newer versions	Windows Server	RZ Server	64-Bit
Windows Server Core	2012 R2 and newer versions	Windows Server	RZ Server	64-Bit

Software Dependencies

Windows Desktop Runtime.NET7.0.0.x64 or better

Hardware Requirements and Recommendations

Hardware	Minimum Requirements
CPU	i5
Cores	Minimum dual core
RAM	8GB
Hardware	Recommended Specifications
CPU	Intel 7th gen I5 or I7 or AMD Ryzen Series
Cores	Recommended 4 core minimum.
RAM	16GB

Networking

Firewall port on your desktop will be opened during the installation of the NutManager but depending on your company's network, the Network Administrator may also need to open the following ports:

Port #	Protocol
50505	TCP
50505	UDP
51505	Backup NutRouter
50504	Internal

Hard Drive Space

The amount of hard drive space you will require will vary widely. There are several factors that should be taken into consideration: 1. Estimating the size of the data files you want to secure 2. The number of revisions you want to keep 3. Estimated data that third parties will share with you.

The current NutManager footprint is ~500mb of space.

Internet Connection

An internet connection is not required for the installation once the installer package has been downloaded locally. But a connection will be required to receive an updated license to enable all the subscription features.

Can I use nut manager when I travel?
Yes. The nut manager is designed to work offline. It is a local first solution that synchronizes and shares your documents when ready and back online.
Why should I use a data manager?
Most companies. And people. Circulate. Sensitive information. Via e-mail, thumb drives, or even in a cloud. Storage account. Generally, all of these lay unprotected. But at the same time. To individually encrypt every piece of data. Is a very daunting challenge. Since there is no universal and simple key management system available for the individual. The nut manager resolves all of these issues. By managing. These secret this secret passwords and keys. Use for encryption for every one of your files. It also helps to make your data more resilient. By having the ability to backup and restore. Your information if it. Sees it being tampered.
Do I need any other cyber protections if I have the NutManager installed?
Yes. The NutManager is designed to give you the best possible protections we can at the document or data layer itself. But that does not mean you should not practice good cyber hygiene. Think of a nut protecting your document like you would place a document in a safe that resides in your home. If you leave your fence gate open, home alarm disabled and your doors unlocked, you are inviting into your home these cyber thugs that may not be able to open the safe but may cause harm in other ways. Strong passwords, firewalls, anti-virus, spam protection, VPN, and more is still recommended to protect your computer.
What kind of data can I store in the nut manager?
The NutManager accepts any file type that is imported. This can include documents. spreadsheets, PDFs, audio, video, pictures, databases, presentations, passwords, cryptocurrency, and more.
Why is local (self-hosted) better?
1.Faster access: Local data storage typically offers faster access to data compared to cloud storage, especially for large files.
2.Offline access: With local storage, you can access your data even if you don't have an internet connection, whereas with cloud storage you need an active internet connection.
3.Privacy and security: Storing data locally can be more secure as you have complete control over the security of your data and who has access to it.
4.Cost-effective: For small amounts of data, local storage can be more cost-effective than cloud storage, which often charges based on the amount of data stored.
What is Data-Centric security?
1. 1. Data-centric security is a type of security approach that focuses on protecting sensitive data itself, rather than just the perimeter of the system it is stored on. In this approach, security measures are applied to the data itself, such as through encryption, access controls, and data masking.
2. 2. With data-centric security, the protection of sensitive data is maintained even if it is transferred outside of the perimeter of a system, such as when it is shared with partners or stored in the cloud. This makes it more effective than traditional perimeter-based security approaches, which can be circumvented if a attacker gains access to the system.
3. 3. Data-centric security is becoming increasingly important as organizations generate and store more sensitive data, and as the attack surface expands with the increasing use of cloud and mobile technologies. By focusing on the protection of sensitive data itself, organizations can better ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their critical information assets.
4. 4. NUTS Technologies has developed novel and innovative capsules that provide data-centric security of sensitive data insider and outside of the organization.
Which encryption algorithms does NutManager utilize?
The nut manager uses the cryptographic primitives present in the NIST publication SP-800 (https://www.nist.gov/cryptography). The first-generation NutManager application is utilizing a combination of RSA 1024, RSA 2048, AES 128, and AES 256 in various features. Please note that the nut manager is cipher agnostic, and we could implement in our framework any desired cipher with a path to auto-upgrade your existing encrypted data automatically.
Does NutManager rely on central servers or services?
No. We are a decentralized and distributed system by design. Our subscription service for networking features utilizes a basic router that performs similar functions like a phone operator connecting calls. A client can choose to host their own private router if so desired. The product itself could be purely operated in an air gapped environment all while keeping the same consistent security across any of these environments.

Today's computers have the storage and power to become edge computing devices in of themselves. Third-party or cloud services should not be a requirement.
What is cyber resilience?
Cyber resilience is the ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from cyber threats and attacks. It refers to the ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks in a manner that ensures the continuity of critical operations and the protection of sensitive information.
NutManager is a technical measure that enhances data security and privacy, as well as having an automated data backup and recovery to minimize the impact of a successful attack. This includes the use of strong passphrases and keys and a threat detector that can identify tampered files that are managed by the NM system.
Having a strong cyber resilience strategy is critical in today's increasingly interconnected and digital world, as the frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks continue to increase. By protecting your data directly, you can minimize the impact of security breaches and maintain the ability to recover your sensitive data.
What is Zero Trust Data (ZTD)?
Zero trust data is a security concept that assumes that all data and systems are potentially compromised and must be verified and authenticated before being granted access. In this approach, access to data and systems is granted only on a need-to-know basis, and all activities are monitored and logged for suspicious behavior.
The zero-trust approach helps to mitigate the risk of data breaches by reducing the attack surface and limiting the impact of a successful attack. This is achieved through a combination of technical controls such as encryption, multi-factor authentication, and access controls, as well as policies and procedures for data management and security.
Zero trust data is particularly relevant in today's digital landscape, where the number and sophistication of cyber threats are increasing, and sensitive data is stored and transmitted across a growing number of systems and devices. By adopting a zero-trust approach to data security, organizations can better protect their critical information assets and reduce the risk of data breaches.
The NutManager utilizes ZTD in its IoD framework.
What is Internet of Data (IoD) framework?
The Internet of Data (IoD) enables direct access to data across any network. Accessing data directly is possible when data has at least two characteristics: identification and privacy. NUTS Technologies is focusing on developing an IoD Framework that is comprised of its Zero Trust Data structures and Structured Folder with Transmutations (SDFT) protocol.
What is a nut?
A nut is a data structure commonly referred as a container, wrapper, or capsule that protects any data you put inside of it such as documents or other unstructured files, directories of files, databases, and applications.
A nut has built-in access control layers which travel with the data in any environment: a location agnostic property of a nut. The security on the data protected by a nut container is consistent across on-premises, off-premises, cloud storages and throughout a supply chain.
A nut directly applies Zero Trust principles on the data object itself in an independent way making central access control systems optional. Data owners set cryptographic technical controls on the payload for sharing at a fine grain level including an industry first: Verify-Only. This property can directly mitigate Insider Threats.
The NUTS ecosystem adheres to Zero Trust Architecture goals by providing its own key management system and utilizing nut containers to store and transport all sensitive data including its keys.
The Zero Trust Architecture goals outlined by the Executive Order of May 12, 2021, Section 10 (k) can be implemented by the use of NUTS technologies.
Does nuts rely on central servers?
No. We are a decentralized and distributed system. In some situations, a client can choose to run a private network with their peers or host their own router. But we do also offer a public router for general use through a subscription. The product itself is designed to be a self-hosted solution and could be purely operated in an air gapped environment.
What information is stored on the public router?
The nut router acts as a relay agent between nut managers primarily due to IPv4 limitations. It is a very basic design with the primary purpose of just relaying messages based on their unique nut IDs. All secured nut capsules that are temporarily cached cannot be read. To be clear, these have already been encrypted with your trusted network before leaving your local desktop. No one can read this data, not NUTS Technologies, the router, or any other admin. This is what it is imperative that you always have a means to recover your master password.
What encryption algorithms does NutManager use?
The nut manager uses the cryptographic primitives present in the current NIST publication. For the first-generation NM application, we are using RSA. 1024 and 2048, and AES 128 and 256. But please note that the nut manager is cipher agnostic and can adopt to new cipher standards and provide a seamless cipher update to all of your existing managed files.
Master Password protection and recovery options
There are several steps you can take to help with password recovery in case you forget.
1.Write down the NM password on a piece of paper and keep that safe with your other physical documents.
2.Trust a friend to be a custodian of your NM password.
3.Place a copy in a depository box.
4.Provide a copy to your legal counsel.
We are working on offering password recovery questions in future offerings.
Object level security and data protection
There are two parts to this nut. Competing technologies offer “object level data protection” or “object level security” which entails a container whose security is administered by a central server, or the storage of an object on their platform. A nut offers both security in the form of built-in access control list, stratum access control AND cryptographic protection of the data. This security and protection will carry with the file anywhere it goes. On a thumb drive, in an email attachment, or in the cloud.
Why is Zero Knowledge proof important in an Institution or a supply chain?
Insider threats come in many forms. An administrator accidentally clicks on a bad hyperlink causing an infection, the nosy IT admin, or the contractor. Why is it that IT administrators are entrusted with so much sensitive data? The simple answer is that we have to in order for them to properly maintain the systems and do their jobs. With our trust-based relationships and embedded access control scheme, the data has the ability to determine the level of access to grant to each individual requesting access including what we call “verify-only”. Verify only is our zero-knowledge proof method which will grant an IT administrator the privilege to verify that the file is part of the system, perform necessary checks and maintenance, but not allow the ability to read the payload.
How is a NUTS data centric design different than existing solutions like blockchain and distributed ledgers?
To start off, NUTS uses cryptography to manage and protect data. It is a key feature of the technology that allows data to be portable, resilient, and protected. It carries with itself everything it needs to show activity, transactions, and changes that have occurred within the object. Distributed ledgers and blockchain are managed programmatically. The immutability of the data in the ledger can also be a privacy issue in and of itself. These are great technologies for transaction-based systems but are not as suited to handle data in the same way as NUTS.
How does NUTS trust-based relationships compliment a Zero Trust approach?
“Trust but verify” is a Russian proverb made famous by President Ronald Reagan. Zero trust models are not new and have been around for a while. NIST SP 800-27 is setting the standards for Zero Trust Architectures. Zero Trust includes the concepts of least privilege. It is an attempt to reduce the attack surface in a traditional IT environment. But why are companies trying to shift to zero trust architectures? Because their critical data is being moved from on-prem to off-prem locations like the cloud and “as-a-service” providers and they need a new way to help protect the data. Here is where we make the case for our NUTS trust-based relationships. When you create a cryptographic trust-based relationship with a third party that defined level of trust will be embedded in every piece of data that is in a nut. This will help compliment Zero Trust architectures by reducing the complexities of how enterprises with complex environments can pass around protected data.
New Installation Walkthrough
New installation walk-through
NutManager Overview
NutManager Overview
Creating a Group and sharing files
Creating a Group and sharing files
Accessing Additional Options in NutManager
Accessing Additional Options in NutManager
Audit History of a Folder or a Document
Audit History of a Folder or a Document
Automated Encryption and File Import
Automated Encryption and File Import
Changing Views
Changing Views
Creating an iNUT
Creating an iNUT
Enabling advanced mode
Enabling advanced mode
Extracting a file out of a nut capsule
Extracting a file out of a nut capsule
Sharing a File
Sharing a File
Using Search Metadata Tags to logically group files together
Using Search Metadata Tags to logically group files together
Utilizing URLs in NUTS
Utilizing URLs in NUTS
Viewing data owned in a folder or group in the workspace
Viewing data owned in a folder or group in the workspace
Virus Check a nut
Virus Check a nut
Working with Contacts
Contacts short video
Working with Profiles
Working with Profiles
Working with the Tasks Window Overview
Working with the Tasks Window Overview
Adding NutManager and data files as an exclusion in Virus Checks
Issue: Anti-virus software may slow down the creation and opening of data files.
Possible Fix: Adding the necessary exclusions in Windows built-in Virus scanner. Refer to your default anti-virus programs instructions on how to add exclusions to your anti-virus.
Steps to resolve:
1.Go to Windows Security > Virus & threat protection and select “Manage settings” under Virus & threat protection settings in the main panel.
2.Scroll down to Exclusions and select “Add or remove exclusions.”
3.Add the following exclusions for each item separated by a comma:
a.Folder: C:\Program Files\Nuts (or the equivalent install directory), %APPDATA%\Local\Nuts
b.Filetype: nut
c.Process: Nuts.NUTBookClient.exe, NUTS.NUTBookClient.exe
Networking Issues/Cannot create relationships or group relationships.
Issue: Group creation issues due to running multiple windows adapters with the same priority

Possible Fix: If you are running multiple network adapters on Windows 10 there may be a conflict of priority on what adapter the application may use. Especially if not all the adapters have access to the internet. Ideally any unused adapters should be disabled by default.
Steps to resolve:
Check to see which adapters are currently active.

If there are multiple adapters that are ‘Up’, then we may need to prioritize which adapters that applications should access by default. You should consult with your local network administrators to discuss this prior to making any changes.
Take note of the active

After all changes have been made you can verify the changes by querying the results
Location of Log Files
There are two log files that can be referenced for troubleshooting issues.
NutServer Log files
Location: C:\Program Files\Nuts\NUTbookService
File name: NUTbookService.Log.YYYY-MM-DD.txt
The NutServer log files will contain information regarding the processing of data files and other critical system operations. These log files can be found under the installation path\Nuts\NutbookServer folder. By default the installation path on a typical install is C:\Program Files\Nuts\NUTbookService. The log files are names daily as NUTbookService.Log.YYYY-MM-DD.txt
NutManager client log files
Location: C:\Users\userprofile\AppData\Local\Nuts
Filename: NutsWPFClient.Log.YYYY-MM-DD.txt
The NutManager client log files will contain information regarding the user interface, functions that are application bound, and CloudAx information.
NutManager will not start
Issue: Double clicking on the icon launches the splash screen and eventually disappears without launching the NutManager. This may be a result of a corrupt WMI instance.
Possible Fix: Verify your local WMI repository is not corrupted.
Steps to resolve:
1.Launch a cmd.exe prompt (as an administrator)
2.Type in the command line: winmgmt /verifyrepository
3.Expected output is “WMI repository is consistent”
4.If you get something else, then you will need to salvage or rebuild your repository. Possible commands that can be used are:
a. winmgmt /salvagerepository
b. winmgmt /resetrepository
5.If you do not receive a “WMI Repository has been reset” message, them you will need to contact Windows support for additional help.
Login prompt reappears after login
Issue: Double clicking on the icon launches the login prompt and then the splash screen and eventually returns to the login prompt and does not launch the NutManager.
Possible Fix: Re-login back into the NutManager
* The re-prompting to login is a UI timeout feature. The NUT services are still working to build your EcoGroup.
Cannot find data nuts (Documents or chat message)
Issue: A file or folder that you have been working with in the past disappeared after someone made changes to a group.
Possible fix 1: All nut data and folder files that lose their home end up in the Orphans folder which can be found under Housekeeping>Advanced>Orphans
Steps to resolve: Right click on the file in question and select “Adopt into folder” and select the desired destination location.
Possible Fix 2: All nut data and folder files can be viewed under Housekeeping>Advanced>All NUTS folder.
Secure Key Management Problem
» Installing the best dead bolt lock on your front door offers very little protection if you hide the key under the front door mat. That is illustrative of the common problem that we have across most of our computer systems. Also, managing these passwords, passphrases, digital certificates, cryptographic keys, and cryptocurrency wallets are very challenging with a myriad of confusing solutions.

» Where do you hide the keys then? NUTS has a consistent solution to this issue: put the key in a nut container! By doing so, it takes advantage of the most secure, portable data container ever devised AND the key automatically gets its own NutID. Simply, we name the key automatically and then secure it. Then, we manage keys the same way we manage any nut.

» A conventional solution to key management is to entrust it to a service provider. Those who have experienced pilfered data through a service provider would probably acknowledge that this is less than ideal. Also, this type of solution opens up your private data to possible insider threat issues from within your organization and from the service provider as well.

» NUTS philosophy: each of us have vast computing abilities and storage capacities in our pockets and laptops so why not utilize it more efficiently and allow it to do more for you rather than entrust it to others so that they can make a buck from you or take a peek at your data in order to sell more stuff to you? We think it’s a sensible position.
Insider Threat
Insider threats are as old as the computer itself. It’s called privileged access. Basically, this is very difficult to avoid using any of our conventional systems because they generally rely on IT administration having all access at some point.

The NUTS point of view is that we should be evolving away from this antiquated model of privileged access for our data. Access to data should be controlled by the data owner directly because they are the people who can properly determine the access levels of different people or groups. The NUTS design allows for such fine grain access controls directly at the nut container level and it is entirely portable—it travels with the data.

NUTS may be one of the few systems where the data owner can restrict IT admins to just ‘Verify Only’ accesses to the payloads or documents contained within. The significant differentiation from other fine grain access control systems is that NUTS is not dependent on central access control systems and it operates independently entirely within the nut container in any environment.

NUTS emphasizes the approach that secrets will tend to stay secret when the secret circle is small.
Key Management / Key Exchange
How many document passwords have you lost in the past? How many protected documents do you have that have the same passphrases? How many different ways are there to protect your documents? Conventional solutions are confusing, error prone, has weak processes, and downright ineffective.

The NUTS way: create a secure, network-ready nut container and then put your document (whatever it is) inside it. Now your document is fully protected by our state-of-the-art cryptographic wrapper glued onto your document which will protect it anywhere.

Why is that different from current solutions? The nut container holding your document protects your data on your local drive as well as in any cloud storage you might have in a consistent fashion. This means that your data access is controlled by you and only you at all times.

Don’t you protect it ‘at-rest’ then protect it ‘in-transit’? Well, think about that for a second: if you protect something well at rest, what’s the big deal to move it around? None. That’s what a nut container is...put your data in it and you can move it around everywhere.
New Ciphers and Hashes
Legacy applications and systems may have been developed to use specific cryptographic ciphers like SHA-1 or 3DES and are “hidden costs” when it comes to upgrading these systems to maintain system security. The nut data structure is cipher agnostic, so you can select to use AES-128 today and easily switch to AES-256 or a post-quantum cipher tomorrow. Data files contained in a nut can easily re-cipher themselves when re-saved, or for very sensitive files, can be instructed to auto-update immediately. The selected cryptographic methods are embedded in the nut data structure thus allowing for variable levels of protection on a per object basis.

This patented feature called SDFT (Structured Data Folding with Transmutations) is integral to the NUTS Ecosystem and is embedded into every nut container created. SDFT is also available as an API for enterprises interested in its dynamic protocol features allowing network messages to be encoded with variable levels of security depending on the sensitivity of the message.

Dynamic protocols is a next generation applied cryptographic feature that is available now using SDFT. A system no longer has to negotiate with a peer process and settle on the lowest common denominator of security mode before passing private messages. SDFT messages are self-describing and self-prescribing therefore changing the security level of a single message is not much more difficult than changing the content of a part of the message, and the receiving process does not need to know this beforehand.
Ransomware Mitigation
Most mitigation strategies for ransomware involve having accessible backups which are done periodically or in real-time. Sometimes, backups are missing because the process broke down some time ago and no one paid attention to it. However, given a thoughtful backup strategy, most users and companies can recover from ransomware albeit it will be a work stopping event for however long it will take to recover.

NUTS addresses ransomware in real-time and in a seamless way. If you have real-time requirements, just have a second computer act as a replica and you will have access to your data if your primary computer is attacked. This will work for any user with at least 2 computers. No one provides that level of data resiliency to the common user. When we said that the normal user will get the state-of-the-art, we mean it and we delivered.

The NUTS data resiliency model is not a special process for mitigating ransomware attacks, it is the normal way NUTS operates- continuously healing, continuously monitoring, continuously protecting.

The most important question is: how do you tell if a particular file has been scrambled (encrypted) by a ransomware attack? Unless, you have very clever real-time backup systems, this is generally a very hard problem. NUTS solves this by its containerized protections on the document itself. If the nut container looks malformed or tampered with, the system will isolate it and attempt to recover the single nut file. Also, internally, the nut container has built-in authentication features to automatically determine that the document within has not been tampered with by an unauthorized person. And because the nut is cryptographic, it is extremely difficult to forge fake nuts to people.
Backup Issues
This is a persistent problem as old as the computer itself. There are many different backup systems available and many savvy users usually resorts to using several of them simultaneously. There may be a corporate backup, a cloud provider backup, your local home backup, and your manual multiple copies of documents backup as well. Very error prone, each one has a different method, different availability and generally confuses everyone—including me!

At NUTS, we decided to integrate the revisions of a document right into the nut container itself: documents that have self-contained backups! Nothing really crazy here, we just rearranged the way backups are done but in a NUTS like way. The benefits are tremendous. The backups are always accessible regardless of internet connectivity. Most of all, it is consistent across any device AND protected by the state-of-the-art protections built into every nut container.
Centralized Sharing Issues
The main problem with sharing documents using a centralized platform is what happens when the service provider is inaccessible? Nothing. No work gets done. Everything comes to a standstill. What’s the point of having multi-core processors on your laptop when all it really does is act as a glorified terminal? There is no sense in that. It is backwards thinking. Technologically, we are regressing.

There are big issues when you want to use more than one centralized storage platform—it’s called Hybrid Cloud Storage. Many of the top cloud integrators are working on these integrations but it takes time and a lot of money.

Since NUTS manages network-ready nut data containers, NUTS can manage any number of local and remote storages: this is basically hybrid cloud storage management. We don’t have to worry about access controls because every nut has it built-in.

NUTS hybrid cloud storage management is usable by the single user to institutions of any size. No other system works this way. This is unprecedented and is groundbreaking.

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