Data transfer at the Turing

The Turing operates the following data transfer protocol for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Secure Research Environments within its Data Safe Haven instance.

Caution

The Turing does not yet operate any Tier 4 environments and has not evaluated whether this process would be suitable for such environments.

Important

The Turing does not generally use its Data Safe Haven for Tier 0 and Tier 1 projects. When it does do so, it operates the same protocol except that the Investigator for a project may make the sole determination that the Sensitivity Tier for the combination of the data to be ingressed

This protocol limits the following aspects of the transfer to provide the minimum necessary exposure:

• The time window during which dataset can be transferred

• The networks from which it can be transferred

• The people and devices who are able to initiate data transfer

For data ingress the following protocol is followed:

• A separate Azure storage account is created for each project which is only accessible by System Managers.

• Each Data Provider has an independent storage container within this account

• The Dataset Provider Representative, Investigator and Referee agree that the Sensitivity Tier for the combination of the data to be ingressed and the data already present within the environment is appropriate for the Sensitivity Tier of the environment.

• A set of IP addresses is communicated to the System Manager by the Dataset Provider Representative.

• The System Manager grants access permission to this IP address range while excluding other connections.

• The System Manager generates a time-limited Shared Access Signature (SAS) token with write, list and append permissions for the relevant storage container.

• The System Manager sends the SAS token to the Dataset Provider Representative over a secure channel.

• The Dataset Provider Representative uses the SAS token to upload their data.

Important

Excluding read and download permissions from the SAS token provides an added layer of protection against loss or interception of the token.

Important

Limiting the validity of the SAS token minimises the chance of malicious actors at the Data Provider poisoning the data upload.