Tide's zero trust identity and access management system uses blind secret processing, which the key to a digital asset is broken into fragments which are spread across swarms of servers on a decentralised network.

This means no one individual, system, organisation or vulnerability can control or compromise the key.

"Individually, those servers are oblivious to the keys they partially hold, the process they partially action or the assets they unlock. However, together, as a swarm, they operate as a cohesive yet unimpeachable authority," said Tide co-founder Michael Loewy.

RMIT University cybersecurity senior lecturer Dr Joanne Hall said "Identity and access management systems, which sit at the core of many organisations' security, require blind trust in a central authority to maintain security. This reality makes them a primary target for hackers – and is an Achilles' heel that, when exploited, is potentially catastrophic."

Tide describes its approach as a fundamental breakthrough in multi-party cryptography.