IBM has released a cryptographic signing technology for handling digital assets in cold storage, reducing the risk associated with manual procedures while keeping assets at arm's-length from an internet connection.

The tech giant - often called the Big Blue - said in a statement on Tuesday that its IBM Hyper Protect Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO) helps protect high-value transactions by offering additional security layers, including disconnected network operations, time-based security and electronic transaction approval by multiple stakeholders.

In recent years, IBM has quietly been applying its gravitas in key management, specifically its confidential computing suite of technologies, to digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

The limitations of cold storage come down to human interactions, which can take the form of inside jobs, forced attacks – when violence is threatened to have a transaction signed – or other operational errors involving administrators at data centers and simple “pen and paper” approaches, IBM said.

The new OSO tech is being used by IBM’s long-standing partner in the crypto space, Ripple-owned custody firm Metaco.

“IBM’s confidential computing division has been a reliable partner throughout the years, and we are pleased to complement Metaco’s catalog of institutional cold storage solutions with the unique air-gapped cold storage that OSO enables, especially as cold storage requirements are increasingly being stipulated by regulators in markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan,” said Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani in a statement.